Operation ORIGINS
by VeemonRemix
Summary: Prequel to Codename: Kids Next Door. The origin story of how Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki, Wally and Abby first met, and how they came to be Sector V- the best division that the Kids Next Door have ever seen.
1. A New Beginning

**So this will probably come as a surprise to a lot of you guys who have been following me, since I officially "retired" from writing after my previous story, Batgirl Beyond. But this was an idea that I had after watching quite a bit of Kids Next Door, and I decided to come out of hiding to give this a shot. I noticed that there was never really a legitimate origin story ever told for KND, even though there were snippets of the origin that were alluded to here and there throughout the series. So here's essentially my story of how Sector V (with numbuhs 1-5) got started. Idk what to expect. For all I know this could only get a few views and comments, since the series is a bit old by now. But I hope that whoever reads this will like it. Apologies if I ret-con some details, but I've tried to make it somewhat accurate, and readable for people who aren't very familiar with KND the series. Hope you enjoy!**

**One other thing that may be worth noting is that this story is more or less told with Abby (Numbuh 5) as the main protagonist, but of course all the rest will show up, so just a heads up in terms of that.  
**

**-x—**

"It was a warzone. Nothin' more, nothin' less." A young yet somewhat scratchy female voice narrated

The scene revealed a mass load of children running and fighting inside of the Kids Next Door Moonbase, while an ear bleeding alarm sounded throughout the entire building. Viscous orange globs were splattered all over the place, including and especially on the children themselves. Many kids were laying motionless on the ground while others were sprinting around, shooting whatever weapons they could get their hands on. What was once a pristine and orderly lecture hall became a chaotic and messy battlefield.

"I know what you may be thinking." The girl continued to narrate. "That's gotta be one doozy of an enemy to have everybody runnin' scared like that. But they weren't fighting an enemy..."

One kid's face got splattered with the orange slime, and he crumpled over onto the ground and remained still.

The one who fired the shot looked all too familiar. She was a short, black girl with a red cap that covered her eyes, a black French braid, and a blue t-shirt that draped over her shorts. Both of her hands wielded a weapon that in some ways resembled a super soaker water gun, but instead of being filled with water, it was filled with the orange slime.

"They were fighting us." She said.

The girl ran forward with sweaty palms and clenched teeth.

"That's me. Abigail Lincoln. Abby if you like. But I'm best known as Numbuh 5 of Sector V. And this was our last, desperate shot."

The scene showed her running and shooting frantically and anything that moved

"Numbuhs 1 through 4 and I have seen it all. Evil dentists. Corrupt Bosses. Crazy Cat ladies. You name it, we've seen it. And that's why we, Sector V, are the very best at what we do."

Two kids chased after Abby right before she rolled under a door that was automatically sliding shut. Right before she rolled in, she dropped a present for the 2 kids who were chasing her. They didn't even realize it until the hand grenade exploded and sprayed the orange slime on both of them, throwing them both into the nearby wall.

Abby rolled up to her feet and dashed up the stairs

"It's hard to believe that this deadly undertaking was our very first mission together, and that the fate of the Planetary Kids Next Door rested in the hands of five ragtag kids who couldn't have been more different at the time."

Abby had made it to the top floor. She wiped the sweat off of her brow and forced herself to stop breathing so heavily. Now that she was on the top floor, she had finally made it to where she wanted to go.

It all came down to this. She swallowed, loaded her weapon, and kicked down the door that was in front of her.

The room was empty. She slowly walked inside. With each step, she could hear the metal knock against the bottoms of her white shoes. But it wasn't the only sound she could hear. She could hear the nervous beating of her own heart, as if pleading with her to exit the room. But she knew that she couldn't. She had to do this. The others were in position, and now it was up to her.

She scanned each corner of the room whilst hiding behind her weapon, in order to ensure that she was alone. She turned completely around and faced the door, while walking backwards.

That was her first mistake.

Before she knew what hit her, she tripped backwards and dropped her gun about halfway across the room. Abby shut her eyes and shook her head in order to regain her composure, and looked straight up in complete shock. A shadow loomed over her defenseless body.

"But before Numbuh 5 can tell you that story, she's going to have to tell you this story. The story of how we got to where we are now."

The scene shut to black

"The untold story of how Sector V began."

**-x— **

**SECURITY CLEARENCE GRANTED – FILE DECLASSIFIED**

**OPERATION O.R.I.G.I.N.S.**

**Operatives**

**Reveal**

**Initial**

**Genealogies**

**In**

**Never-before-seen**

**Story**

**-x-**

Planet Earth's globe was shown. Its brilliant blue aura was contrasted against the black and violet backdrop. Above the earth were stars…millions of them. Each with its own unique shape and brightness. From a particular spot on the earth, a golden object flew up into space, and soon appeared to be bigger than the passing stars and comets.

It was a spaceship. Golden in color and massive in size. It was equipped with rocket boosters, lasers and a logo on the side that read K.N.D. It was known by the Kids Next Door for being one of the most luxurious looking spaceship models that they had to offer. But it was also known for being the most deceiving. As shiny and upbeat as the spaceship looked on the outside, every kid on the force knew that things were never nearly as happy on the inside. And that's because this particular spaceship had one job and one job alone – to transport children for decommissioning.

Inside of the ship were two girls, one older and one younger. They were both sitting solemnly on benches opposite each other, exchanging no words. The younger one was Abby, and the other one resembled her greatly. She had dark skin, loose braids, a light blue T-shirt, and dark blue pants. The older girl had a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

The silence pervaded throughout the ship until Abby opened her mouth.

"Cree…" Abby said. She looked a few years younger than before.

"Abby. There's really nothing to be said." Cree said sternly

"I was just going to say happy birthday." Abby slowly dropped her head as the silence continued.

Cree exhaled.

"Thanks." She said

Abby picked a spot on the ground, but soon shot her gaze back up at Cree

"Cree, maybe we can talk to Numbuh 274. Talk about giving you an exception."

"Abby, don't!"

"Why not!" Abby said while standing to her feet and holding out her hands "No one's sacrificed more for the Kids Next Door as you have! It's not fair for you to just be decommissioned like that."

"Rules are rules, Abby. You know that. And there is someone who sacrificed more than I have. His name was Maurice, and he got decommissioned on his 13th birthday too, just like everyone else."

"But that's my point." Abby said while pacing closer, "First Maurice, and then you?! It's just…it's just not right! What are we going to do without you?"

"Sector V will survive."

"I'm not just talking about Sector V, I'm talking about the Kids Next Door as a whole. We would have been toast a thousand times over if it wasn't for you."

Cree could tell that Abby wasn't just hiding her eyes behind her hat. She was hiding her tears.

"I'm not just saying this because you're my only sister. I'm saying this because you're the best agent the KND have ever had. You protected more kids than I could even count. And now they're going to drain all of your memories of the Kids Next Door like all of it means nothin ' to them."

There was a short silence before Cree spoke up again.

"I've already made up my mind, Abby. I'm going to go through with it."

Abby lifted up her head and revealed hear teary eyes

"Which is why for the time being…" Cree smiled as she put her cuffed hand on Abby's shoulder, "They're going to have to make do with you."

"I could never live up to your reputation." Abby said while smirking a bit

"Well never say never." Cree said while examining Abby's shirt. "Who knows? Maybe you could even be Numbuh 1 some day."

"There's a reason why they haven't assigned Numbuh 1 to any kid yet. No one's earned it. And I don't think they're about to start with me."

"Well…whether it ends up being you or not…you'll always be my number 1 sister." Cree said with a smile.

Abby hugged her and dug her head into her shoulder. She lifted her head back up.

"That probably would have been more touching if I wasn't your _only_ sister." She said while smiling

"Yeah, but it still sounded good, huh?"

Abby closed her eyes

"I'll miss you Cree. We'll all miss you."

"Just promise me that you'll look after Sector V. It needs you."

"I promise Cree."

Cree looked up and glazed past the window when a movement caught her eye. She fixed her eyes out the window again. Her face suddenly fell.

"Abby, look out!" She screamed as she threw her onto the ground. It wasn't a full second before something crashed violently into the ship.

The two pilots were thrown out of their seats during the crash. One was a short boy with black hair and the other was a boy with curly brown hair.

"What was that!" The brown haired pilot yelled. He barely got the words out before they felt another crash. And then another.

The other kid climbed up to the dashboard and pressed the button that showed the security cameras. His eyes dilated in shock.

"Oh no…"

"Engage the autopilot, now!"

A much larger black spaceship with red wings was banging against the K.N.D. spaceship. Abby and Cree forced themselves to grab onto the nearby ledges and stand straight amidst the rumbling.

"What's going on!" Abby screamed

"It's them." Cree replied with a squint. "The Teen Ninjas."

As if on cue, a life sized glass tube smashed into the wall. About six teenagers who were dressed in black and red samurai armor slid down the tube, and rolled to their feet. Their faces were all covered by the armor, leaving only their eyes to be seen.

One of the ninjas stepped to the front

"Well if it isn't Numbuh 5 and Numbuh 11 conveniently packaged in this tiny little spacecraft. "

Abby clenched her fists.

"How did you find us?" She demanded

"We got an anonymous tip that you were coming this way. And from the looks of it, it was a pretty good one."

"Fair warning." Cree said, "Leave now!"

"Well we could leave." The ninja retorted, "Or we can take out the legendary Numbuh 11 once and for all…"

"Freeze!"

The two pilots were standing on the other side of the room with their gumball guns pointed at the ninjas.

"Freeze or we will shoot!" The brown haired pilot yelled

"I'd like to see you try." The ninja said. He turned his head and pointed his finger. "ATTACK!"

Each of the ninjas took out their throwing stars and ran to different corners of the spacecraft. The pilots opened fire, but couldn't seem to match their speed and coordination.

Two of the ninjas threw their stars at the gumball guns with precise aim, shattering the glass gumball compartments. The pilots both looked at their now useless guns, but failed to notice the ninja that had appeared behind them. In one fluid motion, he grabbed both of their heads, smashed them together, and then jumped away. Both of the boys fell to the ground.

Abby fist fought one of the ninjas. She managed to grab his wrist and knee him in the chest. When another two took his place, she backflipped onto her hands and then flipped again to get onto her feet. She found herself next to Cree, who was facing the opposite direction.

"I'm the one they're after, Abby. You need to take cover!"

"Not a chance!" Abby yelled. "We're in this together."

"I'm being serious, Abby! Get awa…"

Cree ducked under a throwing star, which landed on the floor behind her. She looked down at her handcuffed wrists, and hatched an idea.

"Hey! You want me so bad?!" She yelled while holding her hands up, "Come and get me!"

Three Ninjas ran up and attempted to fight her, but she dodged each of their attacks. She ducked under one of their punches, spun her leg across the floor, and tripped the three of them. Finally, out of the corner of her eye, she saw what she wanted: a ninja who was preparing his throwing star from yards away. She leapt up to her feet, hoping that her timing was right.

And it was.

The ninja had thrown the star right when she held her wrists above her head again. But this time, the throwing star cut through the chain, freeing her hands.

"Score!" She yelled while clenching her fists. She bolted up to the teen who had thrown the star and knocked him onto the floor with ease. The three ninjas who she tripped earlier leapt onto their feet and all began to take Cree on all at once.

She fought all four of them as Abby fought her two in the background. Cree's fighting style was extremely fast and well planned out. For every attack the teens could make on her, she had a counter. But no less was to be expected of Numbuh 11. It was simple. She was the best fighter there was.

Abby was on top of one of the ninjas' shoulders, and punching the sides of his head.

"Agh!" The ninja yelled "Get off of me you stupid kid!"

The other ninja forcefully grabbed the back of Abby's shirt and yanked her off of him. Abby's red hat toppled onto the floor as he pulled her off.

Abby's fists were still flailing while the ninja held her by the back of her shirt.

"I'll teach you guys to mess with me and my sister!" Abby screamed.

The ninja who was holding her looked at the other one. He nodded. The ninja with Abby in his hand took out a throwing star. He dragged Abby up against the wall with his right hand, and pinned the throwing star on the back cleft of her shirt where his hand had been. She was now hanging from the wall like a painting.

"This doesn't really concern you, little squirt. So why don't you just hang around?" The teen teased. They turned around and walked over to Cree. Abby yelled, punched, kicked and screamed, but nothing seemed to loosen the grip that the throwing star had on her. All she could do was hang helplessly.

It was only a matter of minutes before Cree's 4 ninjas were on the ground, moaning and groaning. Cree saw the two other ninjas run towards her. But she saw something more important behind them that froze all of her muscles to a stop. And it wasn't Abby.

All this time they had been fighting six ninjas. But it never crossed her mind until now that one of them was still flying their spacecraft. She put the final piece together when she saw through the window. The Teen Ninjas' spacecraft was aiming its canon at the ship – right where Abby was hanging.

"Abby…" Cree whispered. Then she yelled "Abby!"

Cree ran past the ninjas and over to Abby. She jumped up and pulled the throwing star out of the wall, letting Abby drop to the floor.

"Whew. Thanks sis." Abby said

"Abby! Get away from here now!"

"What are you talking about? We have 'em right were we want 'e..!"

Cree didn't bother saying anything else. She pushed Abby out of the way right as a deafening explosion was heard. The two pilots' eyes shot open just in time to see that a powerful blast had just shot through the wall of the ship, and a big crater stood in its place.

It went by all too fast for Abby to process what had just happened. She opened her eyes and saw Cree slide right out of the spacecraft. Cree had one hand out and fear in her eyes as outer space seemed to eat her up legs first.

"CREE!" Abby yelled

She fumbled over to the crater as fast as she could get her legs to obey her, but by the time she got there, she didn't see anything outside. Abby paid no mind the fact that the spacecraft was rapidly losing altitude, or that the ninjas were retreating through the glass tube that they came in. All she could think of was Cree. She was nowhere to be seen.

Her sister was gone.

Abby got down to her knees seconds before the pilot with the brown hair grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up to her feet

"Numbuh 5, that hit took down our defensive and steering systems! We need to get to the escape pods immediately! At this rate they'll blow our ship right out of the sky any second now!"

"But Cree…" Abby choked over the words. "We can't just leave her!" Abby screamed

"Now Numbuh 5!" The pilot yelled

The other pilot ran by and helped the other one drag Abby to the escape pod.

The three of them barely made it out in time. Seconds after their escape pod took off, the Teen Ninja spaceship shot one last powerful canon at the K.N.D. spaceship. It exploded instantly. Abby put her palm on the glass.

"Cree…" She whispered with tears in her eyes.

"Numbuh 5." The black haired pilot stood next to her. He held out her red hat.

"I uh, got this from the site." He said solemnly

Abby gazed at the hat for a long time

"This was hers…" She muttered slowly.

"I know. But…she'd want you to keep it."

Abby hesitantly took the cap. She closed her eyes and sat slowly onto the floor. It took her a few moments to do it, but she soon found herself crying into the cap. And she cried and cried all the way home.

-x-

"And that's all you remember?"

Abby was sitting at a table inside an isolated room. She looked like her 10-year-old self again.

"Yeah. It is." She replied

On the other side of the table were three people. The tall boy in the middle had blonde hair, a red jumpsuit, and the number '274' printed on his torso. To his right was a blonde girl in a blue tracksuit and purple sneakers. She was Numbuh 362. To his left was a girl with a green sweater, orange skirt, and a helmet that said '86' in the middle.

"Sorry. I know that even though it was 3 years ago, it doesn't get any easier to talk about. But I appreciate your time." Numbuh 274 said.

Abby crossed her arms and rested her feet on the desk

"So are you gonna tell me what all of this is about?"

Numbuh 274 turned to 362. She nodded her head. He then turned to Numbuh 86, who shook her head.

"I'm afraid I can't at this point."

"Seriously?" Abby said with a hint of irritation in her voice

"Yeah. But there's something else that we do want to talk about." 274 continued. "It's about Sector V."

"Or rather, 'Sector Me'" Abby said under her breath

"Exactly." Numbuh 86 cut in. Abby was surprised that she had even heard her. "As you're well aware, last week we had to permanently let Numbuh's 8a and 8b go." Numbuh 86 spoke in a thick Scottish accent.

"I still don't understand. They were struck with Chicken Pox _years_ ago. They're doing much better now"

"Yeah, but they never really could shake off that experience. Sure they did well as part timers for a while, but they're just not as good as they used to be." 274 said. "Plus, their…Mom said that they need to spend more time on homework." He said a little quieter. "Which means that you're officially the only remaining member of your sector." He concluded

"That's fine with me. Numbuh 5 don't mind picking up the slack." She said while snapping her finger

"Abby…" 362 said. This was the first time she had spoken.

"You seem to understand." Numbuh 274 said.

"We're retiring Sector V! It's history now!" Numbuh 86 blurted out, as if getting impatient. "We already made the decision."

"What?" Abby asked with unbelieving eyes. She sat up straight in her chair. "What do you mean! You can't just do this! Sector V…"

274 immediately put his hand up to halt her protesting. "Please. Just let us finish." He said. "We understand that Sector V used to be the most reliable, efficient, and skilled sector of the Kids Next Door. But after Maurice and Cree, it's just never been the same. And now that even 8a and 8b are gone, there's nothing left of it anymore."

"I'm still here! Doesn't that mean anything?" Abby yelled

"It does, Abby!" 362 said. "That's why we're reassigning you to the sector of your choice."

"I don't wanna be reassigned. My sister told me to look after Sector V, and that's what I plan to do." She said while sticking her finger into the table

"You've already looked after it." 274 said while setting his hands back down. "You've stuck by the sector through thick and thin, and we appreciate that. But now it's time for a change. I mean, think about it, Numbuh 5. You can't have a sector with just one operative."

"Then I'll find new operatives!"

"You wouldn't dare." Numbuh 86 said. "It's against the rules. All sectors are assigned by 274 himself. Nothing happens here without his jurisdiction."

"Please, Numbuh 86. I can take it from here." 274 said. He folded his hands in front of him. "Abigail…" He started

"That's Numbuh 5 to you" Abby said while crossing her arms

"Numbuh 5." He corrected himself, "We can't thank you enough for all you've done for Sector V. But its time has passed. There's no point allocating our resources to running a one man show anymore. And even if you did manage to go out and find 'new operatives' as it were, the sector would just never live up to what it was. That's why I can't allow you to waste time with all of that. Does that make sense to you?"

"Breaking the promise I made to my sister will never make sense to me."

362 looked down. She had a look of compassion in her face.

Suddenly the door popped open. A boy with tan hair, a blue sweatshirt and yellow gloves popped inside. He had a metal helmet that had the number "35" on the front.

"Numbuh 274 sir. It's time to prepare for the keynote."

"Thank you Numbuh 35."

He closed the door and left

"I have to go." He said, while stacking his papers together. Numbuhs 86 and 362 got up and walked to the door.

"Thanks for your time, Numbuh 5." 274 said, "You can let me know by the end of the week what sector you wish to be reassigned to." He stood up straight.

"Try not to think of this as the end, Abigail." He said with a smile "Think of it as a new beginning."

-x—

The inside of the moonbase was massive. There were floors upon floors of children moving out and about, each with a purpose in mind. There was plenty of chatting and computing happening at any given time.

Abby walked down the hall and saw Numbuh 362 walking her way. Abby stopped in her tracks. Once 362 saw her, she stopped as well. Then she turned around and tried to walk the other way.

"Rachel!" Abby yelled while running to catch up with her. "Rachel just wait."

"I can't talk right now Numbuh 5."

"Hey, I don't wanna talk I just wanna…" Abby started while Rachel stopped walking. "Okay maybe I do wanna talk."

362 breathed out. "Abby, I can't revoke the decision for you. 274's the one in charge, and he already made the call."

"And I don't suppose you could convince him to make another one."

"No, I can't. It's nice enough that he's letting you pick where you want to be reassigned to. If you want my advice, just do what he says. Now if you don't mind, I have to help 274 prepare for his keynote speech…"

"Hey, Rachel. Thank You."

She nodded and made a quick smile, as if to emphasize that she was in a rush

"You're welcome."

Abby put her hand on 362's shoulder before she could walk away

"And…there's something else Numbuh 5 has to ask you."

"Of course there is" 362 said while trying not to roll her eyes

"Why did he ask me to go in detail about what happened to Cree? He already heard the story 3 years ago when it happened. I couldn't help but think that he was looking for something in my story this time around."

362 facepalmed herself

"Agh, Abby please don't do this to me."

"Now Rachel, you know how personal all of that was to me. The least you could do is let me know why y'all made me tell it again."

"I really shouldn't…" She said, "That information's supposed to be classified at this point."

"Do you want me to beg? 'Cause I will, and you know I will."

"No, please don't beg."

"Come on Rachel…" Abby started, "We're friends, right?"

"There were some times I wish we weren't…" She replied sharply with a sarcastic smile

"Just please tell me" Abby asked while folding her hands together

"Abby, I can't"

"Pleaase?"

"Knock it off, Abby!"

"I won't tell anyone, I promise. If he asks me I'll play dumb. I just have to know."

"It has to do with the Teen Ninjas, alright?"

Abby's face went from a pleading one to a perplexed one in a few seconds

"It _might_ have to do with the Teen Ninjas. We're not sure." 362 said. "We received a text transmission the other day, but it was encrypted. When we tried to trace the transmission back to origin, we saw some specs that seemed to match one of their spacecraft models. We don't know if it was from the Teen Ninjas for sure. It could have been a fluke-an independent spacecraft or something."

Abby didn't say anything

"Numbuh 274 wanted to know if you remembered anything about where they could have gone after…the incident all those years ago, since that's the last time we've actively seen the Teen Ninjas around. He was essentially looking for clues or details, but didn't find any based on your story."

"The Teen Ninjas. They're the ones who are responsible for what happened to Cree…" Abby said

"Abby, don't. Okay?" 362 said sternly while pointing her finger at her. "We don't want you doing anything stupid in the name of revenge. That's why he didn't want to tell you about it in the first place. Now promise me you won't make me regret telling you."

Abby slowly nodded her head. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm cool." Abby said

362's watch began beeping.

"Good. I'm running late. Why don't you check on your friend?" She said while pacing away

"My friend?" Abby asked

"You know, the guy you brought in." 362 smiled "The cute intern."

-x—

A bald boy with clear wire frame glasses, a loose red sweater, and grey shots tried his best to balance on the top of a ladder. He was facing the exterior of a rocket ship, and attempting to rearrange some wires that were in the circuit box.

He grabbed a wire and tried to reattach it to another side.

"There we go…" He whispered to himself. "Come on, it has to work this time. Easy does it."

Abby walked into the room. It was a wide open room with a variety of vehicles and rockets inside. Nobody else seemed to be inside the room. Nobody except for him, that is. She stopped at the bottom of the ladder.

"Nigel Uno! How did I know that I'd find you down here in the basement?" Abby yelled while crossing her arms with a smile.

"Nowhere else to go! I'm the only one here for the rest of this week…someone's gotta do the work." Nigel yelled back. It was clear that he spoke with a British accent. "Could you give me a second, I'm trying to figure this out!"

Abby started counting on her fingers while muttering to herself. "How's about I give you three…"

By the time her fingers counted to three, she heard a shock from inside the rocket, and Nigel found himself falling backwards and yelling. Without reacting, Abby held her arms out and caught Nigel before he hit the ground.

"Three seconds before hurting yourself this time. An improvement!"

"Oh would you leave me alone." Nigel said while climbing out of Abby's arms. "Working with electronics is not my thing."

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Well I'll do anything to work my way upstairs. Not all of us were recruited to be operatives right away like you were."

"Hey, you were recruited too!"

"Yeah, by you. I even got to do a demonstration in front of 274 after you put in a good word with him…but I'm still not an operative, am I?"

"Well, no. But Numbuh 274 thought of making you one. You made quite the impression on him with that demonstration. He said that your battle skills were amazing. It's just…"

"My less than impressive test scores. I know."

There was a short silence

"Well for what it's worth." Abby said, "I think you'll make a great operative someday. "

"Well maybe I would. If I had a chance to retake it…" He looked at the ground "Again."

Abby looked up at the rocket ship.

"What exactly have you been working on, anyway?" She said, hoping to change the subject

"As of late, this rocket ship. Everything seems to be okay except for the fact that I can't get it to turn on. And that the GPS doesn't work. And neither do boosters, really. At this rate, this rocket will never get registered in the KND database. If I had the mind for all this technical stuff I probably would have figured it out by now."

"So who's helping you?"

"No one anymore. The other interns and I started it, but all the rest abandoned ship. For the last few weeks I've been trying by myself to get this blasted thing to work."

"Is that how things normally blow over down here?"

"Pretty much. When we all work together we can get a lot done. But once everybody else decides to slack off, I typically get left picking up the tab."

"But you don't have to do that…Why not just ditch this rocket like everyone else did?"

He shrugged

"Well, I don't want to just give up on it." Nigel said while wiping his hands with a cloth, and looking up at the rocket "Sure, it's hard work. But I think that it's important to stay committed. See things through to the end, you know?"

Abby nodded

"So how about you?" Nigel asked, "How is Sector V these days?"

Abby scoffed. "You mean how _was_ Sector V. The administration's closing it down. As of today, Sector V no longer exists."

Nigel turned his head away

"Sorry to hear that."

Abby looked down at his pants and noticed a handheld notepad in his back pocket.

"What's that?" She asked

"Oh…it's nothing." He said while trying to grab the notepad. But Abby snatched it from his pocket before he could get to it.

She thumbed through the first few pages. Each page had a bunch of drawings, text, and arrows drawn on them.

"A doodle book?"

"More like an idea book." Nigel corrected her.

Abby could see a variety of invention ideas, mission ideas, and adult conspiracy theories all jammed together in that little book. On one page she saw a plan to fill the grand canyon with Rainbow Munchies cereal. On another page she saw a plan for a vehicle called the F.L.I.E.R.P.L.A.C.E. She looked between the notepad and him.

"Wait, you're tellin' me that you came up with _all_ of these?"

"It passes the time when I'm on my lunch breaks, which I will take back now, thank you very much!" He said while grabbing the notebook out of her hand. "Now is there a reason you came down here or not?"

Abby pointed up

"It's past time for 274's little announcement. You are coming right?"

Nigel turned back to the ladder and put his notebook back in his pocket.

"I was actually going to get back to work. Tell me how it goes, Numbuh 5."

He prepared to climb the ladder, but Abby grabbed his wrist and pulled him back

"Numbuh 5 won't have to since you'll be there yourself."

"Hey! let go of me!"

"Come on, Nigel, a little bit of fresh air won't bite." She said it while dragging him to the door as Nigel continued to protest. "As much fresh air as you can get on the moon anyway…" She said quietly

-x-

"I thank you all for coming out." Numbuh 274 said. He was standing on a podium behind a stand. The room resembled a lecture hall, with Kids Next Door operatives sitting on each floor. Numbuh's 86, 362, and Numbuh 60 were standing behind him with their arms folded behind their backs. Numbuh 60 had black hair, and a brown beanie. He wore a thick green coat, topped off with orange gloves and an orange backpack.

"As you know, I've called each and every one of you here to make a very important announcement."

Abby and Nigel were standing next to each other on the very top balcony. They could barely see what was going on, but could hear his voice through the speakers.

"And that announcement is this. Boys and girls of the Kids Next Door, I proudly present to you, The N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.!"

[N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. – Neurological Activating Nanobot Optimizes Mental Intelligence & Tactical Efficiency]

A picture of what looked like a robotic flea appeared on the projector screen behind him. It was a winged, six legged insect that was chrome in color and had bolts for joints.

"These devices have been years and years in the making, but I'm proud to tell you today that the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S are in their final stages of testing. Now I'm aware that the vast majority of you are completely unaware of what exactly a N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. is and what exactly a N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. does. And that's because up until now, we've only been sharing the designs for the 'mites within our leadership board, and with a select number of sector leaders. But enough small talk. Let's get to the cool part, why don't we?"

He pressed a button that changed the slide on the projector screen. It showed a 3D schematic of the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.

"Their design is taken from that of an ordinary flea, or fruit fly. You know, those icky little things that we call our daddys to take are of when they're in our rooms? Well let me assure you that no daddys need to be called when one of these is around. And that's in part because you won't even be able to see it. As you're aware, regular fleas are really small, but these are even smaller. It's the size of a tiny grain of sand, completely unnoticeable to the unsuspecting eye. But their effects are astounding, and dare I say it… revolutionary."

He went to the next slide. The kids in the audience were on the edges of their seat in excitement.

"The N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. is, in short, a mind enhancer. And I'm not just talking about intelligence, even though that is part of what it does. I'm talking about the Abbylity to greatly increase the fighting potential of our operatives. These little critters will change you from a senseless rookie to a black-belted genius."

"How do you get them to work, you may ask? And as gross as it may sound at first, you have to eat them."

A few "ewws" came from the crowd

"Well, let me correct that. You don't _have _to eat them. They can go in through any facial openings. The mouth, the ears, or the nose. But the point is that eventually, they'll have make their way to your brain."

Abby leaned on a nearby pole with her arms crossed while Nigel put his hands on the guardrail to look down. They both had the same perplexed look in their faces.

274 pressed the button to show a short animation.

"And once they latch onto your brain..." 274 said, "Then your fighting Abbylities and your IQ will be dramatically better."

One of the kids in the front raised his hand

"So are we talking like a twen-tillion times better or a hundred bazillion times better?" He asked with a nasally voice.

"A hundred bazillion." 274 said while raising his two eyebrows

A resounding "WOAH" came from the crowd.

"Yeah. Woah." 274 said, allowing the words to sink in. "But don't take my word for it!" He continued.

"Numbuh 60! Front and center!" He yelled.

Numbuh 60 dropped his hands to his side and stood face to face with Numbuh 274. The crowd watched silently and intently.

"Um, yes sir?"

"I have a few questions for you." 274 said, while grabbing a pen and a page from his notes.

"O..kay?" Numbuh 60 said

"What's the square root of 256?" 274 asked while staring at his page.

"Huh. I didn't know roots were squares." Numbuh 60 said while scratching his head "I always thought they were like, long and pointy."

274 checked the question off of his list

"What's the chemical formula for sugar?"

"Uh…S-U-G-E-R?"

274 checked the next thing off

"And finally, who wrote the Declaration of Independence?"

"Sorry, I don't listen to rap." Numbuh 60 said sharply. 274 checked the last thing off and put the paper away.

"Okay, one last thing." 274 started, " I want you to try and pin me down."

The crowd sucked in a gasp of air.

"Uh, Numbuh 274, sir…you sure you're okay with that?"

"Yeah. I am. And I want you to hold nothing back." He said while removing his helmet and his armor one piece at a time. "If I tap three times, that means I quit. And the same goes for you."

"Alright…" Numbuh 60 said after a pause. He had skepticism in his voice, but didn't dare question 274. He bent down and looked 274 in the eye.

"At your count." 274 said

"Okay. 3. 2…1!" Numbuh 60 yelled while running to tackle him. 274 dodged it. Numbuh 60 threw a punch, which brushed the side of 274's shoulder. But that's as far as he got. 274 kneed 60 in the chest and elbowed his back. Some of the crowd began to look away as 274 effortlessly knocked 60 to the ground in no more than 20 seconds. 274 and held him in a headlock. Numbuh 60 tapped out as fast as he could.

That came as no surprise to anyone. 274's fighting greatly surpassed that of Numbuh 60, and for that matter, just about everyone else at the moonbase. That's part of the reason why he was captain.

274 helped 60 up and brushed off his clothes for him.

"You alright?" He asked

"Yes sir." 60 said

"Okay…" 274 said while trying to catch his breath, "Now I want you to swallow this"

He held out a capsule that resembled a pill.

"Inside are half a dozen N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. Just about as much as you should take in one sitting. Numbuh 60."

Numbuh 60 took it, and held it between his pointer finger and his thumb. He examined the pill.

"Don't worry, it's safe." 274 said while wiping his brow. "Just try it."

Numbuh 60 slowly complied. He breathed in and out, and then quickly shoved the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then slowly opened them a few seconds later.

"How are you feeling?" 274 asked

"Uh, pretty normal actually."

"Good. Because I want you to try and pin me down again."

Numbuh 60's eyes shot up at him. At this point, it was clear to the crowd that 60 and 274 had never rehearsed this. He was just as surprised of what was going on as anyone else was.

"Sir…I don't know if I can take that again. That hurt more than a spanking!" He said while rubbing his chest.

"Just trust me, Patton." 274 said. "Try again. And I'll count this time."

"I'm gonna need a cold root beer after this…" Numbuh 60 muttered to himself, hoping no one would hear. He got in his fighting stance again

"I'll count down this time." 274 said. "3…2…1"

Before 274 could finish counting to 1, Numbuh 60 let out rapidfire attacks on him. First, he let out three lighting fast jabs, then a kick in the rib, and then he grabbed onto 274's shoulders, front flipped over his head, and then pinned him down to the ground with ease after he landed. 274 genuinely tried to escape the lock, but Numbuh 60 was too strong, and was continuing to squeeze harder on his neck.

Numbuh 274 tapped out after 6 seconds.

The crowd boomed in applause. Abby and Nigel continued to watch with frozen faces.

This time, 60 helped 274 to his feet.

"Sir, are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine." He said while grabbing his arm, "But now let's get back to the questions."

274 grabbed the piece of paper while the applause began to quiet down.

"What's the square root of 256?"

"16, sir!" Numbuh 60 yelled

"And the chemical formula for sugar?"

"Well the molecular formula for glucose is C6H12O6, but the empirical formula is CH2O, assuming that glucose is the type of sugar that you're talking about."

The crowd gasped loudly and whispers followed.

"And finally…who wrote the Decleration of Independence."

"John Hancock!" Numbuh 60 exclaimed. 274 looked at his notes

"Well technically, that's not corr…"

"Is what most people would probably answer since he had the biggest signature…a common misconception." 60 continued, "But the author was in fact Thomas Jefferson among other writers like Ben Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Adams…Did you know that John Adams was our second president? And his son, the sixth president had the same name as him? After him was Jackson, then Van Buren, and then…" Numbuh 60 kept listing people off while 274 threw the paper aside

"THE N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S ARE A SUCCESS!"

The crowd jumped to their feet in loud and excited applause. Nigel and Abby remained motionless, watching intently.

"Just think about the potential that we now have! If this is the example of what every operative of the Kids Next Door will be like, we can no doubt put an end to adult tyranny once and for all! And it's all thatnks to the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S!"

Kid reporters climbed the stage and began shoving their microphones into 274's face

"How long do these effects last for?" One of the reporters asked

"About 24 hours…" 274 answered, "Then you'll need to take more." He answered

"How do we know that this kind of technology won't fall into the wrong hands?" Another one asked

"Through the years, our tech division has been syncing the 'mites with our code module. That way, the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. can only work on registered Kids Next Door operatives. No one else."

"Mr. 274, sir. Why did you choose fruit flies as your model for these devices?"

"Well it's an unsuspicious structure. And if need be, the command deck can set the 'mites to fly to and from a designated area in case of an emergency. So think of it as an additional safety feature. But for our purposes, the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S won't ever move. We'll just be taking them in pill capsules."

"Alright, alright, back up!" Numbuh 86 marched to the front and pushed the reporters away. "That's all Numbuh 274 has to say to you laddies!" She and 362 escorted Numbuh 274 into the backstage.

"Thank you all for coming!" 274 yelled

Numbuh 60 was still listing off the presidents while the three of them passed him.

"You know, you can shut up now…sheesh! Americans I tell ya…they always like to hear the sound of their own voices. You'll never catch me talkin' that much…" Numbuh 86 mumbled right before they exited.

-x—

Nigel and Abby were out in the hallway. Even though the hallway was teaming with excitement and movement, neither of those two had spoken since the announcement.

Numbuh 35 stopped in front of Abby

"Some speech, huh, Numbuh 5?!" He said, unable to hold back his smile.

"Yeah. It was some speech indeed." She replied

"Man, 274's really outdone himself. Think of what we can do with that kind of technology! All of us could be as tough as him, and as smart! No evil adult's gonna stand a chance against us! This is the future of the Kids Next Door I tell ya."

Abby half smiled and nodded. 35 turned his head towards Nigel.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" 35 asked

"Actually we have. I'm Nigel." He said, while shaking his hand

"Oh, that's right. You're the intern from downstairs." He said while nodding. He pulled his hand back. "Carry on."

35 walked away and then pointed at Abby on his stride out

"The future, Numbuh 5!" He exclaimed right before running down the hall. Nigel put his hands in his pockets, and Abby crossed her arms.

"So…" Abby said with a smile, "What do you think?"

"Well as we just established" Nigel started, "I'm an intern, not a commentator."

"Please, Nigel. Do me a favor. Speak freely!"

Nigel looked around before he opened his mouth.

"Even if I was a registered operative, I don't believe I would ever use those things."

"Why not?"

"Well. I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but…something about it doesn't sit well with me. Maybe it's the fact that you skip all of the hard work it takes to be an expert operative. Or maybe it's something else. Of all people, I'm open to new tactics and new ideas but for some reason, this sounds…off."

Abby simply looked at him

"You…probably think I'm crazy, huh?" Nigel asked

Abby smiled

"No crazier than you were before." She tapped his shoulder and then walked the other way. Nigel nodded and then went on his way as well.

-x-

A blonde man in brown khakis and a red tie opened the front door of a large house. He breathed in for an extended period of time.

"Ahh. Now isn't this a nice place, honey?" He spoke with a strong Australian accent. His blonde, short haired wife stepped up next to him. She was holding a newborn baby.

"It sure is, dear." She replied in her Australian accent, "There's so much room." The baby in her arms began to laugh. She tickled his stomach and let the door shut behind her.

"And it looks like little Joey likes it too." She said, "This place sure is 'swell"

"Why, you can say that again!" The man exclaimed as he rested his two wrists on his hips.

He began to look around.

"Hey, speaking of our kids…" He said, "Now where's our son with the boxes?"

He turned around and faced the door. He grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open again. A short, light skinned boy with a an orange sweatshirt, blue jeans, and a blonde bowl haircut stood behind. He was trying to hold four suitcases at once. Even though his hair was covering his eyes, his muttering mouth was enough to show that he was infuriated.

"Ah! There you are, Wallabe!" The man joyfully exclaimed, "Why don't you come and take a look at this here house!"

"Daaad…" Wally moaned, "I already told you that I didn't want to move here!" He also spoke with a shrill voice and a strong accent as well.

"Aw that's a bunch of silly talk!" Wally's father said while playfully slapping his back. Wally carelessly dropped the boxes to the floor. "This place is great! You can have all of your friends over anytime you like!"

"I don't have any friends here, Dad!"

"Well we're gonna install a swimming pool soon. You can play in there!"

"I can't swim."

"Well I'm sure you'll find something to do while we're living here. Now come on, these boxes aren't gonna carry themselves you know!" He said while slapping Wally's back again. Wallly angrily rubbed his hand against the offended spot.

"Haha, this our son. Don't you love our son, honey?"

"I sure do, Sid." Wally's mom said as both of them walked up the stairs.

"You know, you could help me with these!" Wally yelled after them. Both of his parents continued to laugh up the stairs.

"Mom? Dad?"

No response.

"UGH!" He yelled. He kicked the suitcases aside and marched outside. He slammed his hands into his sweatshirt pocket and walked down his driveway.

"Cruddy house. Cruddy suitcases. Cruddy parents."

He walked past the car. He stopped in his tracks to kick the tire.

"Cruddy car!"

The rim of the tire fell flat to the floor, and the car alarm went off. All the birds in a nearby tree flew away.

His dad's head popped out of the house window on the top floor.

"You're gonna have to fix that, son! See ya inside!"

He pulled his head back into the house.

Wally facepalmed himself and dragged his hand down to expose the pink of his eyes. He let go, put his hand back into his pocket, and strolled down the sidewalk.

Perhaps if he weren't looking straight down, he would have noticed the video camera that was lodged in a big tree that he passed. But unfortunately for him, he was too preoccupied with getting as far away form his house as possible.

Wally's footage was on a screen that was inside of a dark, black and red room. The windows revealed that it was being played from a ship that was in outer space.

A familiar looking black and red suited samurai paced up to a shadow covered samurai in front.

"So what's the call?" The one in the back asked.

The one in front was watching the footage of Wally with their hands held behind their back. The person spoke in a deep, muffled, synthesized voice.

"He's perfect. Seize him, and bring him to me."

**-x—**

**Sidenote: So one thing that I realized that I sorta ret-conned was the fact that not all of the kids had joined by the time Maurice left the KND. In the show, there was one really short flashback showing all of the 5 kids present ad Maruice's decommissioning, but I guess in this version, Abby was the only one who was in the KND at the time. Sorry about that lol. Hopefully it's not too big of a deal. At worst, maybe you guys can look at this story as something of a retelling if it's too inconsistent, haha. **

**Anyways, let me know what you guys think of this! Should I continue it? **


	2. Decoded

**Thanks for the feedback in the first chapter, guys! I read all the comments, and they're always really helpful. So per request, here's the next chapter! **

-x-

Abby walked down a crowded hallway. All she could hear were people buzzing about the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. announcement from an hour before. But she wasn't interested in talking about any of that. Not now. Now, she had something else in mind.

Abby put her hands in her pockets. She nonchalantly veered off into a secondary hallway that branched out of the first one. It was no accident that a few yards in front of her happened to be Numbuh 86 walking straight down. Abby followed behind her, and did her best to stay out of sight.

Abby briefly glanced down at a glass display case right before she passed by it. Inside of the case was a pair of sleek sunglasses, which had the words 'Numbuh Zero's Legendary Sunglasses-For Display Only' written in red crayon under it. She shifted to a brisk powerwalk to keep up with Numbuh 86.

Numbuh 86 stopped in front of a door with a number pad mounted next to the lock. There was nobody else in this area. Abby hid behind a pillar and watched her type the code in.

3-8…

Numbuh 86 darted her head back. Abby quickly hid more carefully behind the pillar.

86's eyes looked around the area and then back again. She focused on the number pad again just in time for Abby to stick her head back out.

3-8-4-0

The door opened and 86 walked in. It was only a few minutes before she and Numbuh 274 both walked out. They both paused in front of the door to talk for a minute, and then the two of them walked away. Abby didn't know what they were talking about. Nor did she care. She had gotten what she had come for.

Once those two were out of sight, Abby quietly walked over to the door right after she looked behind her. She looked down at the keypad.

3-8-4-0

She heard the lock click open. She rested her palm on the doorknob and looked back one more time. She quickly opened the door and slipped inside.

Before her was a small room with a metal floor, and a set of computers and seats in the front of the room. She decided to waste no time.

She briskly walked over to the computer in front and booted it up. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was still logged onto Numbuh 274's account. She went straight to the "Archives" folder.

There were about 50 folders within it. She scrolled down to try to find what she was looking for. She stopped by a folder that said "Personnel." Out of curiosity, she double clicked it. She could see a set of folders inside, and they were all numbered. But she knew that the numbers didn't represent actual files. They represented the operatives. She clicked on her folder, and found a full bio of herself. 'NAME- Abigail Lincoln. NUMBUH – 5, AGE- 10.' She was surprised at how up to date the system was. Her 10th birthday was just last week. Her bio went on to fully detail her history, her experiences, her strengths, her weaknesses, and it was all accurate to the T. She supposed that this was how thoroughly they had to check out their operatives before they joined the force. Still, that didn't make it any less creepy.

She exited her folder, but then had a fleeting thought. She scrolled down the folder and found another subfolder called, 'interns'. She found Nigel's name at the very bottom of the folder listing. She read it

'NAME – Nigel Uno, NUMBUH – N/A."

The next line read,

"Profile truncated due to indefinite disbarment. Intern shows tactical promise but exam scores prevent him from being considered seriously as a future operative – Take special notice to test scores listed below."

For some reason, that made her angry. In comparison to her bio, Nigel's had barely anything. And it wasn't for any reason except that his test scores were low, so they didn't see the point of paying anymore thought to him. Abby shook her head right before clicking two times and fiddling on the keyboard for a moment. Then she caught herself. She had already spent 5 minutes in here, and she hadn't even done what she came here to do yet. She exited the folders and opened the Archives again. She soon found the folder she was looking for.

Archived Messages.

This was it. She clicked on it, and found a folder that was dated from a few days before. She opened the file that she was after. It was exactly like Rachel said. It was an encrypted transmission from an unidentified ship. The whole thing was a mess of different numbers and symbols. To a lesser mind, these texts would have been meaningless, but Abby used to deal with encryptions on a regular basis. She skipped past the standard notations that were in the transmission, and came across a line that didn't look like the others. It stood by itself in the middle of the text, and was in a different notation than everything else that was in there.

/118 8.267 7.249 9/

After those numbers, the encrypted codes continued.

It all happened too fast. Once Abby got through reading them, the door swung open and the lights turned on.

"FREEZE!"

Abby's eyes shot open as she accepted the truth. She had just been made. She turned around in her chair. Of all people who could have caught her messing around in this room, she couldn't have been more relieved to see Rachel holding her gumball gun out at her. Rachel slowly lowered it.

"Abby?" 362 said, unbelievingly. "What are you doing here?"

"Rachel. I was just looking around, you know. Surfing the Web."

362 looked up at the screen.

"Oh no, no, no." She said while packing her gun and walking over to the chair. "Abby you can't be here. You've got to leave before…"

"Before WHAT!" Even 362 jumped at Numbuh 86's loud voice. Both Rachel and Abby looked 86 in the eye. Numbuh 86 pointed at Abby as she stomped over to her.

"I KNEW I was being followed. How on earth did you get in here? What's this all abou…"

She too saw the screen.

"These files are classified!" 86 boomed, "How did you even know they were here?"

Rachel and Abby avoided eye contact with each other. Numbuh 86 turned right back around.

"I'm telling Numbuh 274, now."

"Fanny, wait." 362 said while grabbing her wrist. Numbuh 86 looked back at her. "Just, don't tell him, alright?"

"And why shouldn't I?"

"If you tell him, he'll know that it's your fault that she got in. And then we'll all be in trouble. This whole situation will be a lot cleaner if we just leave him out of this." Numbuh 86 bounced her eyes between Numbuh 5 and 362.

"I can take care of Numbuh 5." Rachel continued, "Just go back to your meeting with him before he suspects that something's up."

Numbuh 86 remained quiet for a few seconds. Then she walked up to Abby.

"Consider this your first and last warning. If I catch you sticking your nose into where it doesn't belong again, I won't be so nice." She pointed at the screen, "And I don't want you digging any deeper into this, you understand?"

Abby quietly nodded.

"UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes! Sheesh…"

Numbuh 86 looked back at 362. "She's all yours. Take her out of here."

Numbuh 86 turned around and exited the room. The slam behind her seemed especially loud.

"That girl should really invest in some anger management classes." Abby said while cracking a smile

"It's not funny, Abby. You almost cost me my job."

"Yeah, I owe you one."

"You owe me a lot more than that. What were you even trying to find here, anyway?"

Abby remained silent. 362 was forced to answer her own question.

"The Teen Ninjas." She said

Abby slowly nodded. "Yeah." Abby said

"Abby, you promised me that you wouldn't look into it!"

"I know…"

"You know? Then what do you call this!"

"I know…Rachel. And I'm sorry. It's just that these guys are the reason why Cree's…"

362 looked at the ground

"And in some twisted way, it's like they're my last connection to her. I was just trying to see if all of this would lead me anywhere." Abby concluded

362 put her hands in her pockets and looked up at the screen

"So did it?"

Abby looked back at her

"Did you find anything?"

Abby shook her head

"Nothin'. Nothin' but a bunch of meaningless numbers."

"That's what I tried to tell you."

They were quiet for another moment

"I understand that you want to avenge her." 362 said, "You're not the only one who looked up to Cree as an older sister, you know. But breaking the rules is no way to go about it. Next time you want to find something out, just do it by the book. You'll get more out of it that way."

362 reached to turn off the computer. Abby looked at the screen one last time before it shut to black.

"Now let's get out of here." 362 said "Numbuh 86 would do backflips if she saw that we were still in here."

Abby smiled, and Rachel did the same.

-x-

Abby quickly walked back into the main hallway. She pulled a gum wrapper out of her pocket and used a pencil to write down exactly what she saw.

/118 8.267 7.249 9/

Before Rachel had shut off the screen back in the room, Abby made sure to memorize every symbol, every number, and every space because each was of the utmost importance.

She could hardly contain her smile as she decoded the numbers at the bottom.

'118.8…' Abby wrote

_It's nothin' but a bunch of meaningless numbers. _That was the lie Abby had told to Rachel. Abby genuinely felt bad about doing it, but she didn't want to make her worry. But the truth was, these were more than just a bunch of numbers. These numbers in this notation never appeared in a standard encrypted message. They were put there on purpose. And In these numbers, she was one step…no…ten steps closer than where she was at the beginning of the day. She decoded the numbers below.

'118.8…267.7….'

She was almost done. Her palms began to sweat as she finished off the set.

When she and her sister were kids, they made up a way of communicating in order to bypass their parents' attention when need be. It started off as a silly joke, but it soon came to be quite useful. And the best part was that it was never that hard to figure out. It started off with substituting certain words for other words and certain letters with other letters. But more relevantly, they would sometimes substitute certain symbols for spaces and certain spaces for symbols.

And this was no exception. She was to substitute the periods for spaces and the spaces for periods. The backslashes were just there to indicate the beginning and end of a statement, kind of like a capital and a period. It was Cree's way of signing the message.

'118.8…267.7…249.9.'

This time, Abby couldn't help but smile ear to ear. She not only knew how to decode the transmission, but she knew that her sister was the one who sent it. Cree was still alive. Abby deduced that she must have been captured all this time and was trying to send out an S.O.S., in desperate hopes that Abby would somehow see it.

And as for the meaningless numbers? They weren't really numbers. They were coordinates. Cree's coordinates.

And despite the fact that she could already hear 362's pleas, 86's screaming, and 274's strict orders going around in her head, Abby had already made up her mind.

She was going to go find her.

-x-

Wally paced down the sidewalk, and kicked a crushed Pepsi can down the way.

"Why'd we have to move here in the first place?"

Wally kicked the can a few feet forward

"I said that we were just fine where we were. But nooo. Dad has to go and get a job heeeree."

He kicked the can a little harder.

"UGGHHH, I'm so bored already! B-O-R-D, bored! I bet there's nothing fun to do around here at all!"

Wally looked up a little bit and spotted a squirrel eating an acorn next to a fire hydrant. He looked back down at his Pepsi can and then back up at the squirrel. His mouth thinned out into a devious smile.

The squirrel nibbled down on its acorn, and barely noticed when the Pepsi can was hurled all the way over to it. Once it saw the can coming, its eyes bulged out of its head, and it turned around and ran. The can landed right where the squirrel ran away from. Wally ran over to the can and kicked it again towards the squirrel.

"Come on squirrely! Why don't you put up a fight?"

The squirrel quickly changed directions and ran straight for a tree, just missing the can again. It quickly climbed up to the top branch. The squirrel stuck its tongue out at him a and spat. Wally walked over to the can again.

"I never was the best at football…" Wally said while eyeing the squirrel in the tree. "But even I know how to hit a moving target."

An "uh-oh" seemed to come out of the squirrel's mouth. Wally ran over to the can and kicked it as hard as he could.

But it never made it over to the squirrel. Instead, it was caught by one of the Teen Ninjas.

"Huh? Who the crud are you?!"

He held the can in front of him, and then dropped it down to the floor.

"Wallabe Beatles." The Ninja started "We've been watching you."

"Hey! How do you know my name!"

Just then he was grabbed from both sides by the arms. Two more Teen Ninjas were now on either side of him, holding him high over the ground.

"What the! GET OFF OF ME!" Wally demanded while attempting to flail his fists around

The Teen Ninja in front bent down and looked Wally in the eyes

"Impulsive. Rude. Loud mouthed. Generally speaking, a jerk to all animals."

The Ninja eyed his two companions.

"Our leader was right. He is perfect. Take him away."

They began walking out of sight. Wally tried kicking and screaming, but it was of no use.

"LET GO OF ME! LET GO I SAY! HEELP!" Wally screamed.

He was wasting his breath. Within seconds, the four of them were already gone.

-x-

Nigel was sitting alone on the floor with his legs crossed, and his back resting against the bottom of the rocket ship. He was once again in the empty basement. He had his notepad and pen in his hands, and was intently drawing ideas inside of it. His brown lunchbag was also next to him, but he seemed too engrossed in his notepad to care.

The door sprung open. Nigel flinched when Abby stormed into the room.

"Cree's alive."

Nigel clicked the back of his pen and put it in his pocket.

"Come again?"

Abby helped herself to a nearby computer and took a seat. She logged on using her codename and password.

"My sister. Numbuh 11. She's alive, but she needs my help. I knew she wasn't really dead. I could feel it!"

Nigel stood to his feet and walked behind her

"And you're basing this off of…" He started

"A transmission that we received. Numbuh 362 told me about it. And Numbuh 5…" She said pointing to herself, "snuck into the boss's office and decoded it myself."

Abby furiously typed on the keyboard. She was viewing a 3D model of outer space.

"And you're sure that Numbuh 11 sent it?"

"100% positive. She sent me these coordinates." She showed Nigel her bubble gum wrapper without taking her eyes off of the screen. Nigel adjusted his glasses and took a moment to read them.

"She's probably being held captive by the Teen Ninjas. She sent me the coordinates to their base of command, or at least one of their airships." Abby said while Nigel was reading

"They look to me like a bunch of random numbers. How do you know that these aren't just…" Nigel said

"Trust me, Nigel." She said, interrupting him. "This is the way that my sister and I speak to each other. She must've gotten a hold of one of their communicators, but didn't want them to know what she'd sent."

Desperate. Paranoid. Those were the words that Nigel wanted to say. But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"It makes perfect sense." Abby continued, "I would do the same thing if I was in her situation."

"Why would she have waited all this time to send for help?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was the only chance she got to hack into one of their computers or something. But that's not important to me. What's important is what I'm gonna do about it."

Nigel opened his mouth to ask a question, but when he saw what Abby was doing on the computer, another one quickly came out instead.

"Wait. You're not planning to…"

"Yeah. I am. As fast as I can." Abby said

"Numbuh 5, you can't go there! What if…what if there's nothing out there?!"

"Then at least I'll know that I tried."

"But don't you think that we should at least submit this information to Numbuh 274? Maybe he could send backup or something."

"No!" It was the first time Abby stopped typing and turned around to look at Nigel. "Nigel, you can't tell anyone else what I told you. If you do, they won't let me within a hundred miles of that place. They probably won't even believe me."

Nigel crossed his arms.

"So what then? You're just going to charge into the Teen Ninjas' spacecraft all by your lonesome?"

"No." Abby stood to her feet and looked at Nigel straight on. Her silence in between told Nigel that she was gearing up to say something important. "No, I want you to join me."

Nigel's face fell.

"What?"

"There's a reason why I came to you and not anybody else. You have incredible tactical abilities that might even be better than mine. And your sheer dedication is something that I'll need when I go to rescue my sister."

"Numbuh 5, you can't ask me to do this. I'm just an intern. If anybody knew that I followed you on some rogue mission, that would eliminate any chance I could ever have of joining the Kids Next Door as an operative."

"I've already considered the risks, Nigel…"

"You want to know another time you 'considered all the risks'? It was the time that we first met. You remember that, Numbuh 5?"

Abby looked the other way

"I was an innocent little kid when those Delightful Children From Down the Lane kidnapped me. And you convinced your entire sector that you had this 'simple search and rescue mission' under control. You went in by yourself, but didn't anticipate that they'd be prepared for you. It took longer than expected to get past their diversions, and in that time, they tortured me. They permanently cut off all of my hair. Even though we were the same age, you took me under your wing that day, and I appreciate that. But you were also wrong that day. And I don't see how this is any different."

"You know, Nigel, I could have done anything with this information. I could have already packed up and gone by myself. But I came here and told you. Because I did learn my lesson from that day. And that's to never enter into battle alone. Which is why I'm still standing here now."

Abby held out her hand. Nigel looked down at it.

"I need some water." Nigel said. He turned around and left the basement. Abby slowly dropped her hand and looked straight ahead.

-x-

Wally face was thrown down onto the floor. He pulled his head up and spat out all of the dust and dirt. He had a red rag around his eyes, which effectively blindfolded him.

Someone pulled the rag away, and Wally's eyes became visible through his hair.

He groaned, rolled his body around and looked to see that he was inside of a dark, flying spacecraft. He glanced over at the windows, and saw the stars.

"Where in blazes am I?"

"Outer space."

Wally looked straight ahead at the Teen Ninjas who said it. The two that had dragged him in were standing in the background with their arms crossed next to each other.

"YOU!" Wally yelled. He jumped up to his feet and sprinted over to them with his fists out. One of them simply held his head at an arms distance away as Wally tried to fight through.

"Persistent little runt, isn't he?"

"Who you callin' a runt!?" Wally shouted "I'll teach you to make fun of me!"

"Ninjas, please."

Those two words seemed to quiet everything down. They looked forward at the Teen Ninja who was at the front of the ship. The Ninja turned around and looked down at Wally.

"Let's not upset our guest."

It was clear that this one with the synthetic voice was their leader. Even though the person's eyes were the only part of their body that was visible, it was enough to bring order to the entire ship.

"After all" The leader said while stepping down a couple of steps, "We don't him to leave without his gift."

"Gift?!" Wally wondered, "I don't need no stinkin' gift."

The leader lightly nodded at one of the Ninjas in the back. He briskly turned around, went to the back and rummaged through an open box.

"In fact, I've got a gift for YOU!" Wally said to the leader, while standing on his tip toes. He brought out his fist. "A good old fashioned knuckle sandwich! And I'll have seconds for all of you guys if you don't let me go right no…is that what I think it is?"

The Ninja from the back had returned with an iPod and noise cancelling headphones. And once Wally's eyes settled on it, they glistened with joy.

"You see we teenagers spend too much time on our mp3 players and laptops." The leader explained, "And personally, my iPod has been distracting me from my normal, teenage duties. So I asked my guys here to bring me a kid who looked like he could use a little something to take his mind off of what's going on at home. And here we are. So take it. It's all yours!"

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Wally said with a smile on his face, "Why didn't you just say so?!"

He looked around the room

"Hey…I'm not bein' punk'd am I?"

"If you were being punk'd, I'd have a camera crew in here." The leader said plainly

Wally scratched his head, "Oh yeah!" He said in a light tone. He eyed the iPod and headphones.

"How do I know that this thing isn't broken?" Wally questioned again

"I'm not asking you to take something you haven't tried out yet. Why don't you give it a shot?" The leader said

"Don't mind if I do!" Wally exclaimed while rapidly snapping the headphones on. "Man, I can hardly hear anything through these. I can't wait to use this on my dad. Woah! You have like 1000 songs on here!"

The leader's eye was beginning to cringe

"Where to start…I kind of like rock, but I have a soft spot for heavy metal too…I never was a country fan. Are you a country fan? I'm not a country fan at ALL. I mean there's some mainstream stuff that I like, but most of it's complete and utter…"

"JUST PLAY THE MUSIC ALREADY!"

"Alright…sheesh…" Wally said, "No headphone can drown out _that_ loud voice…" He said quieter

He pressed play on a random song.

"Hey. These headphones are pretty nice!" Wally began playing air guitar "Yeah…I can get used to thees…"

That's when it happened. It wasn't a couple of seconds after that before his eyes shot wide open.

Smiles began to creep across all of the Ninja's faces. They all knew what was happening. Because on a microscopic level, the headphones Wally was listening to were laced with black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. They swarmed into his ears-about 12 in each of them.

Wally stood still as a statue with his eyes taped open. The headphones that were around his ears slid and dropped to the ground, as did the iPod.

"You think it worked?" One of the Ninjas asked.

The leader walked closer to Wally, and waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing. Then the leader slapped his cheek.

Wally's eyes snapped shut, and then open again right before he blinked a few more times.

"What's your name?" The leader demanded

"Wallabe….Beatles." Wally said in a monotone voice.

"And who do you work for…Wallabe?"

Wally looked up at the leader

"I work for you." He replied, "My loyalty is to the Teen Ninjas."

The rest of the Teen Ninjas couldn't help but break out into applause

"And what will you do when you see any of those pests from the Kids Next Door?"

"I'll defeat them. All of them."

The leader smirked and stood straight. The other teens watched the leader return to the control panel.

"It's like I said, team. If you want to fight a dog, get a dog. If you want to fight a lion, get a lion. And if you want to fight those pesky children…you get a child. And this one's even better than we bargained for." The leader said, while leaning against the dashboard. "Suit him up and prepare him for battle."

The teens promptly escorted him out of the room.

"Consider our plan…in motion."

-x-

Abby printed off three pages from the computer. She studied them carefully as Nigel walked back in. She lowered the pages

"That was one long water break." She said

"Yeah, well I had a lot to think about."

Abby stood up straight

"Like how I owe you a lot. How I wouldn't even be part of the Kids Next Door if it weren't for you." Nigel continued

"This isn't an obligation. It's entirely up to you."

"I know." Nigel said after a pause. He walked up to her. "The Teen Ninjas are dangerous. You know that better than anyone. At best, this is a suicide mission. And at worst, this is a shot in the dark..."

"But it's a shot Numbuh 5's willing to take." Abby said. Nigel crossed his arms.

"You're going to do this with or without me, aren't you?"

Abby nodded. "Yeah."

Nigel dropped his arms

"Well I've made my decision. If you're serious about going through with this, then you're going to need somebody to watch your back. The way that you used to watch mine."

Abby widened her eyes under her cap. Nigel held his hand out.

"Besides, it's Kids Next Door regulations. Article II, Section 3 to be exact..." Nigel let out a smile. "No operative gets left behind."

Abby hid her eyes behind her cap and smiled

"Yeah, baby." She said as she grabbed Nigel's hand. "Welcome aboard."

They dropped each others' hands.

"So…" Nigel started, "How are we planning to get there?"

Abby looked up at the rocket ship

"In that." She said plainly.

"This?!"

"You said it yourself. It's not registered yet, and has no working GPS. That way, the administration won't be able to track it. If we're lucky, they might not even realize that it went missing!"

"You seem to be forgetting something." Nigel said, "This rocket's a pile of junk right now. I can't even get it to fly."

"But you can get it fixed soon, right?"

"No, I can't. I already told you, I'm not that good with electronics. As hard as it is for me to admit, this is about as far as I can get on my own."

Abby took a moment to think

"Do you happen to know anyone who can help you out? Preferably someone who doesn't number among the KND administration and/or anyone who would tell them what we're doing down here?"

Nigel pondered for a while, but eventually, his eyes lit up.

"I like that look…" Abby said, "Any ideas?"

"One." Nigel said, while turning around "There's a hall monitor from school, his name's Joe Balooka. I knew him fairly well back in the day. He used to have a partner who he said had a knack for inventing all kinds of things. But Joe said that since the two of them broke up, this other kid's been spending a lot of time in his room making free-lance inventions and selling them to clients for baseball cards. It's the only time I've ever heard Joe use the term, 'genius' to describe anyone."

Abby stayed quiet for a moment before she spoke.

"So this other kid…" Abby said while tilting her cap up, "Does he have a name?"


	3. Hoagie

A fist knocked on the front door. Nigel and Abby were shown to be waiting in front of the house.

"You sure this is the place?" Abby asked quietly

"Positive."

The door opened up. A short and round lady a dark blue dress, dark blue glasses and short brown hair opened the door. She looked back and forth between Nigel and Abby.

"Hello." Nigel said, "Is there a Hoagie Gilligan who lives here?"

"Oh no…" The woman said with dread in her voice, "What did he break this time?"

Abby looked confused.

"Uhhh.."

"That son of mine. Always messing around with other kids' toys and trying to make those awful machines out of them."

"Can we just talk to your son?" Nigel asked politely

The lady moved aside, clearing the way for them to enter

"Of course. I'm terribly sorry about all this. You can find him in his room upstairs."

Abby smirked at Nigel and led the way inside. Nigel followed behind her.

-x—

Abby gently opened the door to the bedroom.

"Careful."

Nigel and Abby both heard the voice from inside. Through the crack in the door, they could see the backside of a chubby boy in a bright blue shirt and brown pants. He was sitting at a desk under one small lamp, and screwing in the bolt of what looked like a crude remote control.

"If you open it too fast you'll trigger the security system." He spoke in a somewhat nasally American Accent. "Wouldn't wanna see a fine gal like you fall victim to a water balloon in the chest."

He said it without turning his head. Even though his back was facing them, he was able to see them through the black and white video screen that was also stationed at his work desk, and hooked up to the ceiling-hung camcorder. Not that he lifted his eyes off of his remote for very long anyway.

Abby slowly opened up the door the rest of the way. She and Nigel walked into the room, watching out for any other boobie traps. His room had mechanical parts and working tools strewn about his floor and bed.

"I'm…" Abby started

"I already know who you are." He continued screwing his bolt, "Your reputation precedes you, Numbuh 5. You do good work." Hoagie set his screwdriver down and picked up his wrench. "The Kids Next Door's a good organization. I hope to join someday myself."

He placed his screwdriver on the table

"So I take it that you're Hoagie Gilligan Jr." Nigel said

"Depends on who's asking…" Hoagie said. Suddenly, Hoagie spun around in his chair and faced both Abby and Nigel. The rest of the lights in the room automatically turned on.

"You know, I've always wanted to say that!" Hoagie said enthusiastically. His face was now visible. He wore grey goggles with yellow lenses, and plain brown aviator hat. "I've just been waiting for the right opportunity! And that sounded pretty darn cool there, huh? But I wonder what would have sounded cooler. That, or 'that's my name, don't wear it out.'"

Both Abby and Nigel stared at him blankly.

"Yeah I know." Hoagie said. "I should have gone with the second one. But you two didn't give me a lot of time to decide. Hey, uhhh.

"Nigel…" Nigel said

"Nigel. Would you mind saying that same thing again?"

"…I beg your pardon?"

"You know, the whole 'So I take it you're Hoagie Gilligan' part."

"I don't see the point."

"Aww, come oonn! You've gotta do it. Please! Plleaasee."

"Okay!" Nigel said while putting his hands up

"Good. Now where were we?"

Hoagie turned around and faced his desk once again. The lights seemed to fade out again.

"The Kids Next Door's a good organization. I hope to join someday myself." Hoagie said. He turned around and whispered

"This is your line." Hoagie muttered right before turning back towards his desk. Nigel sighed.

"So I take it that you're Hoagie Gilligan Jr."

"That's my name. Don't wear it out." Hoagie said proudly, "Now ya mind tellin' me what you two are doin' here?"

"We need your help…" Nigel said

"A commission." Hoagie said, "I bet Balooka told you where to find me. Sorry, fellas. I'm afraid you're outta luck. I'm retired, see?" He said while resting his hands on his stomach and laying his legs on the table . "I only work on my own projects nowadays."

"Not enough time?" Nigel asked

"Not enough buyers. You see, as of late, my reputation as that nut down the street's overtaken my rep as a legitimate inventor. People start telling their friends how weird I am, and it affects business. So I've closed up shop."

Abby rested her hand on the back of Hoagies desk chair.

"All that aside…" Abby said, "What would you do if a couple of interested people gave you the chance to help save a lost Kids Next Door operative?"

Hoagie spun back around in his chair and the lights turned back on. He lifted his goggles over up to his forehead and got a better look at Abby and Nigel.

"What exactly's is this all about, anyway?" He asked in his normal tone.

"We'd like you to fix up a rocket ship for us." Abby said. "We're looking for the Teen Ninjas. It's a search and rescue mission."

"ooo" Hoagie said, while raising his eyebrows. "Sounds dangerous."

"We know." Nigel said, "But we won't be going anywhere if our rocket doesn't work."

Hoagie nodded

"Hmph. Well lucky for you guys…" Hoagie put his goggles over his eyes, "Rockets are a bit of a specialty of mine.

"So you'll help us?" Abby asked

"I dunno." Hoagie said while resting his finger on his cheek, "My services don't come cheap, you know."

Nigel and Abby reached into their pockets.

"I know you like baseball cards." Abby said, "But we don't have any. So how's about…"

She pulled his hand out of his pocket and held it in front of Hoagie. "12 cents, some pocket lint, and a button."

"I've got a bottle cap and a cherry bubble gum." Nigel said

Hoagie gazed at both of their offers, as if examining them carefully. Then he shrugged.

"Ah, works for me!" He grabbed the goods from both of their hands and pocketed them. Abby put on a smile of satisfaction.

"So…" Hoagie clapped his hands together, "Where's the lucky rocket?"

"It's in the Kids Next Door Moonbase." Nigel said

"We'll have to sneak you in there tomorrow morning before anyone shows up…" Abby finished

"Woah, wait. Sneak me in?" Hoagie asked, "Didn't you already clear it with the KND?"

"Not exactly." Abby said, "What we're doing is more of a…private mission."

"You mean an unauthorized mission." Hoagie corrected. Abby and Nigel kept quiet.

"Look, Hoagie, if you're not comfortable, then it's okay if you…"

"Wait." He raised his hand to stop her from talking, "I like it. I get to feel like a vigilante for a day. Like a…renegade!" He said the last part in a hush tone. "Hey, do we get to wear costumes?"

"Absolutely not." Nigel said

"Well. Can't win 'em all." Hoagie said while standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets. "So how much time do we have?"

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to be on my way in 3 days maximum. Is that enough time?" Abby asked

"Well it depends on the model. But for a couple of good kids like you…I'm sure the Hoaginator can work something out." Hoagie's eyes lit up, "What do you guys think of that name? I figured that if I couldn't have a vigilante costume, I can at least get a cool sounding alias. And I kinda like the sound of it! The Hoaginator!"

He pointed his finger up into the air. Abby lightly put her hand on his shoulder

"Hoagie suits you just fine, baby."

Hoagie sadly dropped his finger down.

"Okay, so it's work in progress. Not so bad." He said it quietly, and then clasped his hands together.

"So let's take a look at that rocket ship. Shall we?"

-x-

"You call this a rocket ship?!" Hoagie asked.

The three of them were in the basement of the Moonbase, looking straight at the incomplete rocket.

The words 'DAY 1' were typed out at the bottom of the screen

"What?" Nigel asked, while Hoagie walked up the ladder to take a look inside. "It's nice! I designed it myself."

"Yeaahhh. Do me a favor, and don't quit your day job, alright amigo?"

Hoagie stuck his head into the rocket's interior

"But this is…my…day job…" Nigel said quietly

"So what exactly needs to be fixed…other than apparently all of it?" Hoagie said

"Well I've been trying to get the rocket to turn on for weeks now. I can't seem to get the circuit board to work right."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Hoagie quickly re-connected seven wires, and the rocket ship booted up immediately.

Abby was speechless. Nigel's mouth was stuck open.

"Ho…How did you do that?" Nigel asked with unbelieving eyes

Hoagie slid down the ladder and opened up the rocket's engine compartment.

"Oh that? It's really nothing. I've been playing with wires since I was 4." Hoagie explained, "My mom says that I was practically born with a circuit board in my hand…which is pretty ironic given the fact that I never get bored of circuits!"

Hoagie began laughing by himself. Abby and Nigel simply stared at him.

"Get it? A circuit, BOARD?! It's funny 'cause it's a play on words!" Hoagie turned his head "You…understand right?"

There was silence.

"Really? Nothing?" He asked

"I'm not the only one who shouldn't quit my day jo…" Nigel started

"Please, Nigel. Allow me. That's gotta be the worst joke Numbuh 5's heard in her whole life!" Abby exclaimed

"Yeah, well who asked you guys…" Hoagie waved his hand at them and then turned towards the engine again.

"So how does it look?" Nigel asked

"Well as is, this engine wouldn't be able to outrun a dune buggy if its mechanical life depended on it. But the good news is that it's a pretty easy fixer upper. And it won't be too hard to make this thing untraceable. Three days should be just about enough time to give this baby the facelift it needs."

"Cool. So what should we do?" Abby asked

"You said no one ever comes down here right?"

"Typically, no." Nigel answered

"Then can you guys can make extra sure that we don't get any visitors down here over the next couple days?" Hoagie asked while rolling up his sleeves.

"Sure. It'll just be the three of us in here." Abby said

"Nooo, I actually meant no visitors. Including you two."

"What?!" Nigel asked

"Sorry, but I can't have you guys crowding up my workspace. No offense."

"Now listen here, Gilligan, we…" Nigel said

"It's okay, Nigel. We'll be back down here in two days. Let us know if you need anything."

"Will do."

Abby turned around and went for the door.

Nigel sighed and followed her out. Abby stopped right before she exited.

"And Hoagie…" Abby said.

"Yeah?"

She turned around and put on a light smile and a blush.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." Hoagie said with a blush as well. He faced the engine and Abby left the room. Hoagie giggled

"I've always wanted to say that too!" He mumbled with a thrilled smile. "Man, this day just keeps getting better!"

-x-

DAY 2

"Numbuh 5."

Abby turned around. Numbuh 362 was trying to catch up to her.

"Rachel." Abby said.

"Can I see you in my office?"

"Sorry, I'm actually on my way out for the day."

"Now." 362 continued walking and didn't say another word to her. Abby eventually followed.

-x—

"What's this all about, Rachel?" Abby asked from a small, enclosed office in the Moonbase. She and 362 were both standing straight. 362 crossed her arms

"Abby, does the word 'security' mean anything to you?"

"Yeah…" Abby said nervously.

"Then you would understand that that's the reason why they make us monitor operative computer usage from time to time. You know, to make sure that none of our operatives are aiding and abetting our enemies and what not."

Abby looked at the ground

"Oh…"

"So you can imagine my joy when the administration insisted that we monitor yours for a day, especially after you were caught playing cat and mouse with Numbuh 86 yesterday."

Abby remained silent

"Do you know what Numbuh 274 saw?"

Abby swallowed

"Nothing." Rachel answered. Abby shot her head back up. "Nothing, because I volunteered to be the one to view your computer records. Numbuh 86 wanted to do it so badly, but it took all that I had to convince her not to do it, and that I had it under control. And that's because I knew that she'd probably find something that would wind you in some serious trouble. So when I viewed your computer records, lo and behold, I found a deep space coordinate search that you not only made, but printed out. As if you're planning to go there. "

"Rachel, I'm sor…"

"Not another word, Numbuh 5." Rachel pointed her finger at her, "Now look, I don't know what exactly it is that you're up to, and frankly, I don't want to know. That way when I'm asked, I won't have to lie."

"Did you…show anyone else the…"

"No." Rachel answered, "As I matter of fact, I cleared it. So that no one else could see what I saw."

Abby breathed a huge sigh of relief

"But I want you to listen to me good, Numbuh 5. If this has anything to do with your little crusade to track down the Teen Ninjas, then you need to stop digging _now_. If Numbuhs 86, 60 or 274 caught wind of this, the word 'suffer' would take on a whole different meaning for you and for me."

362 leaned on her table and looked Abby in the eye.

"This is the second bullet I've taken for you. I'm not gonna be able to survive a third."

362 stared at her for a little bit longer before removing her gaze and holding up her arm

"That's all I brought you here to say."

Abby gave 362 a brief hug.

"Thanks, Rachel. For everything." She let go and prepared to leave.

"Abby." 362 said right before she left. She stopped before she went through the door. "For what its worth, if I was the commander of the KND, I would have allowed you to do this. But I'm not. So it's only fair that we play by the real commander's rules. Does that make sense to you?"

"Perfect." Abby said, right before hiding her eyes behind her cap and leaving the room.

-x-

Abby walked past a giant window. She quietly smirked and walked closer to it.

Nigel was looking out the window with both hands in his pockets. Abby leaned her back against the window and pulled out a piece of gum.

"Beautiful, aint it?" Abby said, while trying to avoid eye contact with Nigel.

"There aren't any windows in the basement. I don't see outside very often."

"Well who knows? Maybe one day you'll work up here with the rest of us."

"I already told you why that's not possible."

"Yeah. Ya did. But you at least dream of bein' here, right?"

"If I told you what I dreamed of, you'd laugh."

Abby turned around and looked out the window as well.

"I've got a dry sense of humor. Try me." She said

Nigel paused before he said it. "I'd like to be a sector leader someday. Maybe even like…"

"Numbuh 1?" Nigel glanced back at her when she said it.

"Well I never said that…"

"You didn't need to. Sky's the limit, pal." Abby continued, "Well, I guess space is in this case."

Nigel put his head up

"Did they find Hoagie?"

"No. But Numbuh 362's onto me. She wants me to bail."

"So are you going to?"

"Are you?" Abby asked back

"I asked first."

Abby hung her head

"As long as Cree needs me, I'm going to do everything in my power to find her. No matter what the cost." Abby answered

Nigel nodded

"Well if you won't quit, then neither will I."

Abby spat her gum onto a wrapper and crinkled it up.

"Let's just hope that this Hoagie kid knows what he's doing." She said

"From what I've heard. He always does."

Abby tossed her gum into a nearby trash

-x-

DAY 3

Nigel and Abby arrived at the basement. They turned the lights as the walked into the open room. Before them, they saw a big green tarp over a large vehicle. It seemed to be in a different shape than it was before.

"Hoagie?" Nigel asked.

Hoagie appeared from behind the covered vehicle and waved.

"Hey guys! What took you guys so long?" Hoagie asked

"Uh, the 3 day period that you said you needed?"

"Oh, right…I was actually done in more like 1 and a half. The rest was just fine tuning and all that."

"…What exactly did you do to it?" Nigel asked

"Shhh." Hoagie said while grabbing onto the tarp. "Let the beauty speak for herself. Feast your eyes!"

Hoagie pulled the tarp off of the vehicle. Nigel and Abby's eyes both widened completely.

They were looking at a dark green, bullet shaped vehicle with red rocket boosters on either side, and on the top. It sat horizontally, and had a blue screen window in the front.

"I call it, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.!"

[S.C.A.M.P.E.R- Shabby Camper Actually Makes Perfect Emergency Rescuemabob]

"I made a few minor adjustments to the original model. I hope you don't mind."

Nigel rubbed his hand against it

"A few minor adjustments? This isn't even my rocket anymore!"

"Yeah…I tried to fix just the boosters and stuff like you said, but it turned out that the whole thing needed reshapping, so I kinda helped myself."

"Numbuh 5 is speechless! You really outdid yourself, Hoagie!" Abby exclaimed 

"Yeah…" Nigel crossed his arms, "Speechless."

"Just wait. You haven't even taken a look inside!"

Hoagie opened the door, and showed them the furnished interior. Nigel dropped his arms and opened his mouth once again. The interior was equipped with levers, cabinets, computers, a wooden floor, a window, and a leather seat in the middle of it all.

"What you're looking at is a custom built, premium, state of the art aircraft model. I know that you said that you wanted this ship to be off the KND grid, so I installed a unique GPS tracker that can't be detected by the Moonbase. And that's just the start!"

He knocked down on it

"And it can travel up to Mach 2. That's like over 1000 miles per hour."

"Now that's what I'm talkin about! This is incredible!" Abby said while clenching her fists together. Nigel walked around the interior.

"Just one problem." Nigel said while looking at the controls, "Who's going to fly this thing?"

"Well I designed it so that up to 5 people can pilot it, but…"

"No. I mean how are we supposed to fly this if this is _your_ custom design. These controls look completely different than the ones that me and Numbuh 5 are used to."

"Yeah…Now that I think about it, this does look pretty different from the standard KND carriers."

"I could teach you how to use it…"

"But what if something malfunctions on the way? Or what if we need to do an emergency landing? It took weeks for us to learn how to fly the carriers, and from the looks of it, this could take longer." Nigel said

"Well I dunno what to tell you guys. That's the way its gotta be." Hoagie said, "Well…I guess there is _one_ other possibility."

"Which is…" Nigel said

"Let me pilot it. Then you'd have nothing to worry about since I'll be there."

Nigel and Abby looked at each other. Abby looked back at Hoagie

"You'd do that?"

"Well, I'm not working on much these days, so an adventure like this could be exciting. Plus I'll get to test this baby out." Hoagie said while resting his cheek on the wall and rubbing it.

There was a short silence

"So…" Hoagie said as he stood upright again, "What do you guys think?"

"The way Numbuh 5 sees it…you're an honorary member of the team anyway." She said with a wink

"And since you've already stolen my thunder…you might as well finish job." Nigel smiled

"Yahoo!" Hoagie cheered.

Nigel shook his head

"A kid who speaks his mind. I like him." Nigel said

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Abby smirked

"Oh, and speaking of finishing the job…" Hoagie interrupted. "There's one thing that I didn't tell you guys."

"Yeah?" Abby asked

"This can't…strictly speaking….fly. Yet."

"Why not?"

"I need one last part. A battery. A _big_ battery. It's the only way I can get it to work." Hoagie motioned with his hands

"Can't we just buy one at the store?" Abby asked

"Not one that'll fit into this. They're custom made, and from the looks of it, we don't have the time for me to build another one."

"You got that right…we've wasted enough time already. I don't think we can afford to wait a couple more days." Abby said, "Wait. Did you say 'another one'? So you've made one before..."

"I did… but I used it on a commission once. It was for some kid whose parents work with my mom."

Abby had an idea

"You know where to find the buyer, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

"You don't suppose that we could…convince them to let us borrow it for the time being? We can ask really nicely. Say it's for a good cause."

Hoagie tried his best not to laugh out loud, but couldn't help but crack an open smile.

"What is it?" Abby asked

"I suppose we can try…" Hoagie started, "But this particular buyer…She doesn't really listen to reason all that well. Or listen to anything for that matter."

"She?" Nigel asked

"Yeah." Hoagie nodded, "And she's kind of a…well a….wild card. And that's coming from me."

Abby and Nigel both looked confused

"What on earth do you mean by that?" Nigel asked


	4. Kuki

"_Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys, Oh so very round and super chunky, Bringing love wherever they go, Everyone's made of a big rainbow!"_

Colorful, cartoony, plush monkeys were holding hands and singing the song together on a TV screen.

In front of the TV were two young, Asian girls nodding their heads to the rhythm of the jingle.

The smaller one had pale skin, short, black pigtails, a long purple sweatshirt and black pants. The bigger one had slightly darker but still fair skin, an oversized green sweater whose sleeves were way too long, black pants, and black and white shoes. The one in green was hugging a purple plush toy that looked exactly like the ones that were on screen.

"Do you know what really bothers me about the rainbow monkeys TV show, Mushi?" The older one in green asked. She spoke in a slight Japanese accent.

"I dunno, what Kuki?" The younger one asked in high-pitched voice

"The fact that it's not on every hour of every day on every channel!" Kuki exclaimed

"You can say that again!" Mushi said

"The fact that it's not on every hour of every day on every channel!" Kuki repeated

"That sounded even more right the second time!" Mushi yelled

They both hugged and then watched the screen again.

"_Oh, red and orange, and pink and blue, Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys We love YOU!"_

Kuki stood to her feet and held out her hands

"I love you too rainbow monkeys!"

Mushi looked up at Kuki's plush toy and pulled a cunning smile on her face. Mushi jumped up and grabbed Kuki's doll.

"Hey! You can't touch Mr. Huggicans! He's mine!" Kuki yelled

"Not anymore!" Mushi yelled and ran out of the room. Kuki chased her with her arms out and with great speed

"Give him BACK!" Kuki screamed

"Sorry, can't hear you! Hahaha" Mushi zigzagged in and out of the rooms until she finally got to Kuki's room. She turned around and slammed the door.

"HEY! No fair! Open up, Mushi!" Kuki yelled while slamming her fists against the door

"Finders Keepers, Kuki!" Mushi yelled from inside the room, "Now I get all of these toys to myself!"

Kuki pulled on her door handle with all of her might

"MUSHI!"

-x—

"I…think this is the place." Hoagie said. He, Abby and Nigel were standing a few yards in front of Kuki's house.

"Should we double check?" Nigel asked

Suddenly, they heard all of the knocking, crashing, and screaming that was coming from inside the house. Hoagie squinted

"Correction. I _know_ this is the place. Come on."

-x-

All Kuki could hear was Mushi's giggling from inside her room

"I am THIS close to becoming an only child, Mushi! For the last time! Open this door, and give me back my RAINBOW MONKEY!"

She growled the last two words and fastened her feet on the door to pull as hard as she could.

"OPEN THE DOOR, MUSHI!" Kuki screamed

"Meh. Okay!" Mushi said. She quickly unlocked the door and delightfully watched Kuki fly backwards down the stairs. Kuki found herself lying on her back with her feet straight in the air.

"Oops! Sorry, sis!" Mushi closed her eyes, smiled and locked the door again.

"MUSHI! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR…"

The bell rang

"ooo, a visitor!" Kuki exclaimed. She sat up and opened the door. Nigel was in the middle, Hoagie was to his left and Abby was to the right.

"Wrong address!"

Kuki slammed the door in their faces.

"What the?!" Nigel exclaimed

Hoagie immediately knocked again.

"She does that. A lot." He said

Kuki opened the door again

"Still the wrong address!"

Hoagie grabbed the door before she could close it.

"Just wait, will ya? This _is_ the right address!"

"But we're not allowed to open the door for strangers."

"I'm not a stranger! We've met before! And we've been through this exact same thing, before!" Hoagie yelled

"Ohhh, I remember you now! You're that crazy inventor kid who tells all those bad jokes!" Kuki said while twirling her finger around her ear

Abby and Nigel couldn't resist giggling.

"Quite the charmer, aren't you, Kuki…" Hoagie said while crossing his arms

"Hey, its not my fault I couldn't recognize you. When did you start wearing goggles, anyway?" She asked

"Ahem! Onto the point, please!" Hoagie said while motioning for Abby and Nigel to introduce themselves.

"Evening, Miss Sanban. My name is Nigel Uno, and we've heard a lot about you." Nigel said while firmly shaking her hand.

"Abby. Aka Numbuh 5." Abby said and shook her hand as well

"Numbuh 5…you mean?"

"Yes, Kuki." Nigel said, "We are members of the Kids Next Door. Abby is an official operative."

"Ohh, fancyy…"Kuki said "Is that why there's a spaceship that says 'KND' behind you guys?"

"Yes…that's what we came in." Nigel said "And we're here because Hoagie informed us that you were in possession of a mega sized battery that we will promptly need to power our spacecraft." Nigel continued

"It's a long story." Abby said, "But we need it to rescue my sister from the Teen Ninjas. You see, three years ago she went missing right after the Ninjas attacked us. And since then, I've been trying to find out the truth about what really happened to her. It wasn't until a couple of days ago when she sent out an encrypted S.O.S. to me the other day, and your battery is the last thing that I need to…"

Kuki put up one finger, which was being covered by her overgrown sleeve.

"Yeaahh, one second, 'kay guys?"

Kuki rushed back inside her house. Abby was taken aback.

"Huh. I wonder what could have been so important to make her leave in the middle of an emotionally charged speech like that…" Nigel wondered out loud.

After a full minute, Kuki returned with a tub of popcorn

"I'm back!"

"Popcorn? You stopped all that for POPCORN!" Abby yelled while putting her hands on her hips

"What? It's really tasty. You should try some!"

Nigel began sniffing, and then proceeded to a cough

"Agh! What is that awful smell?!" Nigel complained

"That's melted cheese, duh! You sure you don't want some?! It's on the house."

"P.U. Leave it to the Americans to put cheese on their popcorn." Nigel said while holding his nose and waving the smell away.

"I'm Japanese…" Kuki said

"Uh guys. I think we're getting a bit sidetracked here." Hoagie said.

"Oh that's right." Abby said, "So what do you say? Can we use the battery?"

"Okay, would you mind repeating all of that? Because I wasn't really listening the first time."

Nigel smacked his head. Hoagie became fed up, and marched into her house

"We're taking the battery. Where's the garage?"

"This way!" Kuki said with a smile and pointed. Hoagie helped himself down the hall and Kuki followed. Nigel and Abby both shrugged their shoulders and went in as well.

-x—

Kuki, Nigel, Abby and Hoagie walked into Kuki's garage. Hoagie looked up at stepped to the front. Nigel and Abby's eyes glistened at the machine that was in front of them.

"Well here's my garage. I don't know why you wanted to see it so bad…" Kuki said with her eyes closed shut

"There it is…" Hoagie said

They were looking at a robotic, white rabbit that was about 8 times their sizes. It had red eyes that were turned off.

"My word. That thing is huge!" Nigel exclaimed

"And more importantly, it runs on a huge battery. Just the size we need." Hoagie said

"Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.? What do you guys want with Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.?" Kuki asked

Hoagie pulled a ladder over and rested it on the robot rabbit's back. He climbed up.

"Hey! What's this all about!" Kuki said indignantly

"If you listened to a word we said earlier, then you'd know that the H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P., or Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P., won't be going anywhere for a while. I'm taking his power pack."

"What? You can't do that!" Kuki said "How will I feed him?!"

"He's a robot! He runs on fuel and…this!"

Hoagie opened up the battery compartment

"Which I'm taking…now."

Hoagie pulled it out with ease and examined it.

"It's perfect. Has plenty of juice left too."

Hoagie jumped down the ladder and tucked the battery under his shoulder.

"Pleasure doin' business with you, Miss Sanban. Now if you'll excuse us…"

Kuki grabbed the battery and began pulling it away from him. She and Hoagie pulled back and forth between it.

"You guys are a bunch of bullies! You think you can just take Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.'s battery and walk away!" Kuki pulled it towards her

"That's what we were about to do, yeah…" Hoagie said, and pulled it towards him.

"He was taking a NAP!"

"We'll he can nap for as long as he wants to now!"

"You guys can't just steal this from me!"

Abby put her hand on Kuki's shoulder

"We're not stealin' it. We're just borrowing it."

"Borrowing? For what?" Kuki asked

"We were trying to tell you before. We need it for the time being to power our rocket to go into space."

Kuki let go of the battery, making Hoagie shuffle backwards.

"Woooah? Space?!" Kuki asked in awe

"Yeah. And it's to rescue my sister…"

Kuki waved her hands in the air

"I always wanted to go into space! Can I come? Can I come? Please, please pllleaassee?" Kuki asked with watery eyes

"Uhhhhh" Abby said

"Sorry kid." Nigel said, "But there's no room for tourists on this mission."

Kuki cried with an annoyingly audible wail. Her river of tears sprayed out on each side of her face.

"Guys. Maybe we should just let her…" Abby started

"No. Nigel's right." Hoagie said while stuffing the battery in his brown backpack, "I mean, what can you do that the three of us can't do on our own?"

Kuki immediately stopped crying and reverted to her enthusiastic tone. "Well I was voted class nurse in preschool! I took care of the pet guinea pig. Of course, he died the day after I started taking care of him, but I took care of him nonetheless!"

There was a long, drawn out silence

"Well I believe that answers our question." Hoagie said, "Come on guys, we need to head out." He held his stomach, "And I need to hit the bathroom before we leave. I knew I shouldn't have eaten all those burritos while working…"

Hoagie and Nigel left promptly.

"Maybe next time. Nice meeting you, Kuki! Thanks for your help." Abby said softly before she followed them out.

Kuki crossed her arms and pouted

"Hmph. Guess I'll have to give you a postcard then." She grumbled

Abby looked back one last time before she left the room.

-x-

"Hey guys…" Abby said

They were on the KND carrier going back to the Moonbase

"I'm starting to think that we may have been too hard on that Kuki girl."

"Maybe…" Nigel said, "But it's for her own safety."

"Yeah. It could be dangerous if we let her tag along. She doesn't seem to have much training or expertise. I don't mean to be a jerk about it, but I just don't know how useful she'd be…" Hoagie continued, "And besides, she's already given us her battery pack, so in a way, she's already helped us out."

"I guess."

"I suppose we could have been a little bit nicer about it." Nigel said. "We'll all thank her personally once we're back."

Abby nodded

"Okay."

-x—

Close to an hour later, they were seated in the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. The aircraft was on top of a massive trapdoor, with the words 'EMERGENCY EXIT' written on it.

"All systems are functional." Hoagie said, "The battery's working great."

"I can confirm that the skies are clear. And security is about to change shifts." Nigel added while staring at the monitor, "In a moment, we'll have a 10 second window to leave the base without being detected."

"Then we don't have much time to lose." Abby sighed, "I can't believe we've actually gotten this far. Here we come, Cree."

"Security just changed. It's time to go!" Nigel said

"Is everyone strapped in?" Hoagie asked

"Yes." Nigel said

"Yep." Abby said with a thumbs up

"All buckled up!" another voice said

Nigel, Hoagie and Abby didn't know how else to react. They all turned their heads to the corner of ship and widened their eyes only to see Kuki sitting happily in a chair.

"Ku…Kuki?! How did you…how did you get in here?!" Hoagie exclaimed in shock

"I stowed away in your carrier, silly! You sure spend a long time in the bathroom."

Hoagie was lost for words

"You have to get out of here!" He finally said

"No…WE have to get out of here, now! " Nigel said.

"But she…"

"We have no time, Hoagie! Take off already!"

"But…"

"NOW!"

"Blast off…" Hoagie moaned as he pulled the lever.

The trapdoor opened and dropped the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. out into space. It zoomed away before anyone from the Moonbase could see what happened.

-x-

Nigel looked out the window

"We're clear." He said.

Kuki was holding onto her shoes and humming the Rainbow Monkeys tune when Hoagie yelled at her.

"Kuki! We told you to stay at home!" He complained, "_How_ did you get in here again?!"

"I already told you! While you all were waiting for Hoagie in the bathroom, I went outside to take a look at your ship. And I said 'Wow, that's a cool spaceship!' so I decided to hang out in the trunk for a while and play astronaut! And soon, we were moving." The flashback images matched what Kuki was saying. "When we got here, you all went away, and then I saw this shapceship. And I said, 'Wow, that's an even COOLER spaceship!' And the rest is history! Sheesh, you guys aren't all that sharp, are you?"

"_We're_ not sharp?!" Hoagie whined, "_You're _the one who disobeyed us!"

"Oh would you relax already?" Kuki said. Her accent seemed to really come out when she was yelling. "I brought you a postcard like I said. And here it is!"

She threw the postcard over to Hoagie's lap

"Some people are just so ungrateful…" She said with her arms crossed.

"Well now I have to drop you off again, making us waste even more time!" Hoagie growled.

"But I don't wanna go back! I wanna go on an adventure with you guys!"

"Tough luck…" Hoagie said, "I'm turning us around."

Kuki began crying loudly again

"It's fine, Hoagie." Abby said

"Yeah. If we go back now we'll risk being seen when we pass the Moonbase again. Since she's already here, we might as well let her stay."

"YAAAYYY!" Kuki said while throwing her hands up with a smile.

"Fine. Just don't touch anything…"

"You mean like this?" She pressed down on a green button before Hoagie could stop her.

"Wait, NO!" Hoagie yelled

A missile flew out from under the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

Nigel, Hoagie, Abby and Kuki got up and stood side by side by the window to watch where the missile had gone. The missile went straight for a satellite, and blew it to pieces in front of them. The orange flame reflection was seen on the window. Hoagie hung his head

"Well, there goes half of Canada's cable television."

"COOL!" Kuki said with a wide smile

"On second thought…" Hoagie dragged Kuki back to her seat. "Why don't you just sit here, and don't even LOOK at anything."

Kuki sat with her eyes closed and a confused expression on her face. Hoagie turned to Nigel and Abby

"For the record, bringing her along was _your_ idea."

"She'll be fine. I'll get to navigating." Abby said

"And I'll keep lookout." Nigel added

Hoagie looked forward and grumpily manned the controls. "Ooh, You mean like this? Ugh…" He quietly imitated Kuki's voice

"Hey! I don't sound like that!" Kuki yelled. Hoagie dropped his head onto the dashboard.

-x—

Numbuh 274 was writing notes at his desk. There was a knock on his door.

"Come in." He said

Numbuhs 60 and 362 came inside.

"Patton. Rachel. I trust that you two come bearing good news…"

"We do, sir." Numbuh 60 said while saluting

"The tech division's putting the final touches on the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. as we speak. They should be ready tomorrow." 362 said

"So we're ahead of schedule. Fantastic work, guys." 274 said, "And Numbuh 60. How are you feeling?"

"Not so hot…I feel like my brain's had one serious downgrade, sir." Numbuh 60 said while holding his head

"Well don't worry. Soon we'll have as many N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S as we can get our hands on. " 274 nodded, "Thanks for your time, guys."

They both turned around to leave

"Oh, and Numbuh 362. Could you stay for a minute?"

Numbuh 60 looked between 362 and 274, and then left the room. 362 turned around.

"Yes, Numbuh 274, sir?"

"Please. Take a seat."

362 reluctantly did so. Her heart began to race. She hoped he wasn't going to mention what she thought he was.

"Look. I'm not one to waste people's time, so I'm gonna jump right to the punch." Numbuh 274 said, "I know that you've had an eye on my job for sometime now. You know, as the supreme commander of the KND."

Her heart began to slow down. This seemed to be about something completely different.

"Maybe someday. But not as long as you're here. You're leading the Kids Next Door just fine."

"Well I'm sure that you could too someday. But you know one thing that supreme commanders need moreso than anything else? Integrity."

362 slowly nodded

"So tell me, Rachel. How does aiding and abetting malicious activity fall into that category?"

Her heart raced again. This was the exact thing that she was scared to talk about.

"I know that Abigail broke into my office and used the computer. That's yesterday's news. But what I didn't know before a few hours ago was that Numbuh 86 caught you in there with her.

"Now hold on, I wasn't helping her! I did what I could to get her out of there!"

"Okay. Well let's just assume that's true. Then why is it that her computer records disappeared overnight under your authorization?"

Numbuh 362 looked down at the table

"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice?"

"It's not what it looks like, sir." 362 said while closing her eyes

"I have no way of knowing that for sure. And neither do I have any way of knowing that Abby isn't working for one of our enemies. With you as her accomplice…"

"I'm nobody's accomplice! And I know she's been acting suspicious, but she's not out to betray anybody. And neither am I."

274 nodded

"So you're telling me that you know what this is all about."

362 breathed out

"If you want to know, then why don't you just ask her yourself?" She said

"I can't." 274 said back, "Because she's gone."

362 had shock in her eyes

"She left with Nigel Uno and a couple of unidentified kids. They must have thought that they slipped through security, but I had Numbuh 35 keep a close eye on her for me. He saw them leave in an unregistered spaceship."

362 didn't know what to say. She had a mix of anger and fear show in her face.

"It's clear that she trusts you a lot." 274 said, "So it only makes sense for her to have told you where it is that she went."

"She never directly told me…"

"But you know, right?"

Numbuh 362 swallowed

"No. I don't know where she went."

"You're a poor liar, Rachel."

She looked the other way

"You said it yourself." 274 said, "You guys have nothing to hide. So if that's true, then tell me where Numbuh 5 is going!"

"I told her I wouldn't say anything…"

"This is bigger than a stupid pinky promise, Rachel!" 274 yelled while standing up from his chair, "This is a matter of Kids Next Door security! And if you don't tell me, then I'll be forced to believe that you and her are moles in our organization. And I'll also be forced to take the necessary actions. Especially on you. Not only will you have to kiss the supreme commander position goodbye, but I'll have to have you both…."

274 didn't say the last word. He figured that 362 got the message just fine.

"Are you threatening me, sir?" 362 asked after a pause

"I'm asking you to abide by the rules of the administration." He settled his voice down, "You can call it what you want."

He leaned on the desk and looked down at her aggressively

"If you care anything about your friend, you'll tell me where she went. Last chance."

362 looked into his eyes through the uncomfortable silence.

**-x—**

**Let me know what you guys think of the story so far!**


	5. Space Showdown

**I decided to give you guys a treat and make this chapter double length. Enjoy! **

**-x—**

"Uggggghhh, this is sooo boring! Are we there yet?" Kuki complained. She was upside down, hanging her legs on the chair seat.

"You're the one who said you wanted to come, so quit your whining." Hoagie said

"I'm not whining, I'm asking a question!"

"We're not at the coordinates yet." Abby answered, "But we're getting close."

Kuki sat upright again

"Can I help with something? I promise I won't blow up a satellite again!"

"You can help us by zipping it for more than 5 minutes this time." Hoagie said

"But how am I supposed to keep quiet if I have nothing to do! Can I at least get an in flight movie or something? I brought popcorn!"

She produced the same bag of popcorn that she was eating at home. Nigel and Abby both coughed and Hoagie waved the smell away from him.

"Would you please put that away?!" Nigel demanded

"I'm telling you, it's good popcorn!" She took a handful and stuffed it in her mouth. A large wad of cheese fell on her sweater. "Any takers?"

"No, but if you don't put it away, we'll sure as heck have a puker!" Abby yelled

"Wow. You guys are a tough crowd to please…" She put away the popcorn, "I can't fly, I can't watch TV, and now I can't even eat? I can't just sit here like a statue forever!"

"Look. I'll show you how to do somethin' real easy." Abby said. She left the navigator and went next to Kuki

"Oh, Numbuh 5 please don't…" Hoagie pleaded

"You can watch the fuel gauge and battery levels." Abby explained, "If the fuel gets too hot, you just lightly pull this lever down to switch to battery power. And if the battery gets too hot, you can shift this lever here. Easy enough, right?"

"Yeah! I think I get the hang of it!" Kuki said, "It's good to see at least someone appreciates my input!" She yelled in hopes that Hoagie would hear.

Abby made her way back to the navigator

"Hey, what does this 'eject missile' button do?" Kuki asked

Both Nigel and Hoagie instantly jumped to their feet and yelled "NOOOO" simultaneously. Kuki giggled.

"Relax, it's just a joke! You guys really need to lighten up." Kuki said

"Well you have to admit…" Nigel said while sitting back down, "That was pretty funny."

"Maybe a little. But not as funny as my jokes, that's for sure."

"Your jokes?" Abby laughed, "Your jokes are painfully lame!"

"Just. Navigate." Hoagie said sternly

Abby smirked and glanced back at the navigator. She then did a double take.

"Woah! Bear left! Bear left!" Abby yelled

Hoagie turned the wheel at a 90 degree angle.

"What's going on?" Nigel asked

"We're just about there! We're almost right on top of it!"

Nigel looked through the ship's binoculars. He didn't see anything.

It was a few moments later when Abby spoke up.

"Stall the ship."

Hoagie eased on the brakes and slowed the S.C.A.M.P.E.R to a still hover.

"What is it?" Hoagie asked

"This is it! These are the coordinates." Abby said

Kuki and Hoagie looked intently out of the windows. There was nothing but black space for miles.

"You sure, Numbuh 5?" Hoagie asked

"Yes. We're right where we're supposed to be. There's gotta be something here!" Abby said

Nigel kept looking through the binoculars

"I…don't see anything. Abby…" Nigel said quietly, while returning the binoculars to their position.

"Just stay alert, guys! It has to be here somewhere."

Kuki, Hoagie and Nigel all had saddened faces. The energy in the room grew duller and duller until it led to complete silence. Silence that persisted for 30 long seconds.

"How long should we look before thinking of going back?" Hoagie dared to ask

"WE'RE NOT GOING BACK! Not until we find what my sister left for us here!" It was the first time any of them had heard Abby scream like that.

Kuki slowly walked over to Abby and put her hand on her back

"Numbuh 5…there's nothing here." Kuki said

"No!" She pushed Kuki's hand off. "Cree sent us these coordinates for a reason!"

Nothing was said for a moment.

"Maybe…they were just random numbers after all, Numbuh 5." Nigel said solemnly.

"So what are you saying, Nigel? That my sister's really…"

Nigel, Kuki and Hoagie all looked at the ground

"No. I refuse to believe that. You guys may have all given up on her, but you don't know her the way I do! Because at the end of the day, my relationship with her carries weight! It has to mean something! This…" She flashed her gum wrapper with the writing on it, "This has to mean SOMETHING!" "Anything." She choked

No one dared say anything back to her. All they could do was sit and feel her pain.

"I'm sorry." She whispered

"Numbuh 5…"

Kuki's voice was the one closest to her. She turned around with her eyes hidden behind her cap.

"I mean…Abby. I have a sister too. And she drives me up the wall sometimes. But if I were in your position, I'd risk everything to save her. Just like you did." Kuki said. "So I won't leave until you're ready."

"That goes for all of us." Nigel said. Hoagie nodded his head too. "Sorry for giving up so soon."

"I appreciate it, guys. But who am I kidding? I brought you all out here for nothin'. We wasted our time!"

She turned around and tore up her gum wrapper in a dozen different pieces. She angrily slammed her fists down on the dashboard.

Suddenly, another rocket shot out of the bottom of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

"Uh oh." Abby said

"See? I told you guys it was an honest mistake!" Kuki said

Right before their eyes, they saw a laser shoot out of nowhere and explode the missile.

"What the?!" Kuki exclaimed

"Everyone get back to their positions, immediately!" Nigel yelled

Several other lasers shot towards the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. They seemed to come out of nowhere as well. Hoagie managed to maneuver around them.

"What the heck is going on!" Abby yelled

"Wait just one second…" Hoagie said, as if he figured something out. "All of these lasers seem to be diverging from one point."

"I can confirm that!" Nigel yelled

"Then how's about we shed a little light on the situation." Hoagie said. "Kuki, flip the orange switch!"

"Oh, so NOW you want me touching stuff…"

"Just do it!"

"Okay!" She said happily. She flipped the switch, which turned on the ship's high beams.

"Abby, use the rightmost horizontal lever to direct the light to the vertex!"

Abby complied. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R.'S high beams shined on where the lasers were coming from. They saw a silhouette of a massive spacecraft, about 10 times the size of their own.

"Of course! The ship was set to camouflage mode!" Hoagie said

"What do you know? You were right all along, Numbuh 5!" Nigel said

"Yeah…I guess so." Abby smiled

"We have one last missile, guys." Hoagie said as he continued to avoid the lasers. "Nigel…"

"Way ahead of you." Nigel said while grabbing a lever. He aimed directly at the side of the camouflaged spacecraft.

"Ready….Aim…Fire!" Hoagie yelled

Nigel pressed the button and shot the missile.

It was a direct hit. The missile not only destroyed the ships laser cannon, but opened a hole in the side of the ship, soon causing the entire spacecraft to become visible. It was black and red, and in the shape of a smooth diamond.

"Yeah, baby!" Abby yelled.

"Hoagie, do we have the means to defend ourselves in there?" Nigel asked

"You're in luck." Hoagie smirked, "I put 3 loaded utility belts in the cabinets. And because I wanted to be careful, I even brought a spare."

"Yaaay!" Kuki cheered

"Just don't break anything this time." Hoagie said

"Well guys. It looks like it's time to pay them a visit!" Nigel said

-x-

The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. flew straight for the spacecraft. It flew through the hole and landed in the interior.

Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki and Abby jumped out of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. with a gumball gun in each of their hands.

"This place is huugge!" Kuki said

"We must be in the very back of the aircraft." Hoagie said, "The command deck should be all the way at the front."

"You wouldn't happen to know what it would look like, would you?"

Hoagie opened his mouth, but another voice came from the front

"It doesn't matter…" They turned and saw three Teen Ninjas appear in front of them. "Because you won't be seeing it." The ninja in the middle said

"Numbuh 5's only gonna ask this once." Abby stomped to the front of the pack, "Where's Numbuh 11?"

"You're 3 years too late for that. She's gone." The one on the right said

"You're lying! I know she's in here somewhere." Abby said. Neither of the Ninjas said anything.

"Well if you guys won't talk..." Abby loaded her gumball gun, "I take it that the commander of this ship will."

She began to walk past them when one of them grabbed her arm.

"You guys aren't going anywhere." He whispered

"Yeah? And who's gonna stop us?" Abby taunted

The Ninja grimaced "I thought you'd never ask." He said. He motioned with his head over to a dark corner of the ship.

They all turned their heads and saw a few red outlines that blended into the shadows. The boy stepped forward out of the shadows with his fists clenched at his sides.

It was Wally. Except now, he was dressed in the black and red samurai armor.

The four of them opened their eyes wide and gasped.

"He's just…He's just a kid!" Nigel yelled

"Like we are!" Kuki exclaimed

"On the contrary." The Ninja who was holding Abby explained, "Wallabe Beatles is more than just a kid. Now he's unstoppable."

"What did you do to him?" Kuki angrily asked

"Nothing that he didn't have coming." He answered, "But don't ask me….Wally!"

Wally blinked a couple of times

"Yes, sir." Wally said

"Why don't you give these kids a little…demonstration. Destroy them!"

Wally raised his arms and sprinted towards them. Abby saw that the Ninja was enthusiastically watching him. Which meant that he wasn't watching her.

She raised her leg up and stomped down as hard as she could on the Ninja's foot, and made sure that her heel made contact. He howled in pain and let go. She took the opportunity to dash down the hall with her gumball gun in hand.

"I'll be back! You guys hold 'em off!" She yelled

Wally leapt up into the air with his fist out ready to attack

"Yeah, cause that's a fair arrangement!" Hoagie screamed.

Hoagie barely got out of the way when Wally came crashing down.

The Ninja was holding onto his right foot and hopping on his left.

"Yo…you alright man?" Another Teen Ninja asked

"Don't just stand there, follow her! Both of you!"

"Well, okay bro. Whatever you say…"

"Now!"

They both ran after Abby and disappeared into the hallway.

Hoagie tried his best to evade Wally's quick punches and kicks. From a distance, Nigel clicked his brown shoes together once, and instantly found himself standing on top of rocket boosters that were fastened on the bottoms.

"Rocket shoes don't fail me now!" Nigel said. He flew over to where they were and tackled Wally out of the way. They both stood up to their feet in front of each other with their fists out. Nigel tried to punch a few times, but Wally easily avoided them. Wally chopped up onto Nigel's elbow, making him let go of his gumball gun. Wally grabbed it in mid air, jumped up, spun around, and kicked the back of Nigel's head. Nigel was sent faceplanting into the floor.

Wally jumped backwards and aimed the gun at Kuki. Kuki had a perplexed look on her face when Wally pulled the trigger. She got the message just in time, and began running away right as the hard gumballs hit the ground behind her. She let out a high pitched scream while she was running.

Hoagie helped Nigel to his feet

"You okay?" Hoagie asked quickly

"We need to get her out of here." Nigel said. Hoagie turned around and saw Kuki running away.

Hoagie nodded and he and Nigel ran up behind Kuki. The two of then grabbed both of her arms and helped her run faster. They ran straight for the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

"Hey! What are you guys doing?"

They didn't hesitate. Hoagie opened the door and Nigel threw Kuki in.

"What's the big idea!" Kuki protested

"We're leaving you in here." Hoagie said

"Why?" Kuki asked

"You have no training. It's too dangerous for you to be out there. You'll only get hurt." Nigel said

"Hoagie doesn't have training!" She yelled with her hands on her hips

"Yes, but he's good at working the weapons."

Nigel took Kuki's gumball gun away from her.

"Sorry, but I'm going to need this." He said

"You guys just aren't letting me out there because I'm a girl!" Kuki argued

"No, we're not letting you out there because you can't fight." Hoagie said

"But I fight with my sister all the time…"

"Just trust us, Kuki." Nigel said, "This is for your own gooooo…."

That's all he got out before Wally grabbed his leg from behind and spun him around like a top. He let go after a few rapid spins, which launched Nigel across the room.

Nigel fell down flat in front of the Teen Ninja whose foot had just healed. The Ninja growled at him

"Stay here." Hoagie said. He promptly closed and locked the door to the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

Kuki crossed her arms

"Hmph."

-x-

Abby ran as fast as she could down the hallway, and the two Teen Ninjas weren't far behind.

She jumped down to a lower platform and rolled before hopping up on her feet again. Right next to where she landed, a third Ninja appeared from the side and tried to grab her.

"Get over here you little runt…"

She slammed the back of her head into his chin, which sent him stumbling to the floor. She continued running forward, right as the two Ninjas jumped down after her and pursued.

She had to zigzag her way through the hallways. At one point, she front flipped over a cube shaped power generator that was in her path. One of the Ninjas maneuvered around it while the other one leapt on top of it and used it to jump forward.

They were now only about a yard behind her. Abby reached into her utility belt and pulled out a large glass orb that was full of colored marbles.

"Sure hope this works…"

She threw it against the side wall and it shattered immediately. The marbles rolled out in front of the ninjas. One of them faceplanted onto the ground while one of them slipped, but managed to stay on his feet. He slid away from the marbles, and continued to chase Abby. But now, he was much further back.

A few seconds later, Abby stopped running. She was at a fork, and had no idea where to go. One path led to the right and one led to the left

"Perfect…" She whispered sarcastically.

She didn't have to look back to know that the last Ninja was gaining on her. She trusted her instincts and made a right. The Ninja followed.

Abby went all the way down, and found herself facing the door to a room. It was the only one down this hallway, so she could only hope that she made the right choice. She opened the door, entered, and slammed it behind her right away. By the time she looked forward, she had already realized it.

She had gone the wrong way. She was inside of a storage room. She kicked the wall in frustration.

The footsteps got closer to the room. Abby looked around. Then she looked up.

Seconds later the Ninja put his hand on the door handle and opened it. He entered the room as well. But he didn't see anything. He looked on both sides, and then strolled to the middle of the room.

"Come out come out wherever you are you stupid kid!"

"Okay!"

It was all too quick for him to realize that the voice had come from on top of him. Abby let go of the ceiling light and dropped her fist down hard on the Ninja's helmet. His skull rattled around the helmet armor, and he fell backwards to the ground and groaned.

"But only because you asked!" She said with a smile. Then her face squeezed and she waved her hand around.

"Owww" She mouthed.

Abby proceeded to open the door and run out.

-x—

"Uh, Nigel." Hoagie said, "A little help here would be a good thi..hi…hiiing!" He screamed. Wally was shown to be kneeling down on Hoagie's back. He had Hoagie's aviator cap in one hand, and was pulling hard on Hoagie's brown hair with his other hand

"My hands are a little bit full right now." Nigel said while backing up from the Ninja.

"Then would you mind loosening 'em up a bit?!" Hoagie begged

-x-

Kuki watched from the window

"Pfft. Sure. _I'm_ the one who can't fight." She said quietly

-x-

The Ninja leapt straight for Nigel with a high kick. Nigel blocked it with his two arms. Nigel hit the side of the Ninja's face and then went straight for a low kick. The Ninja tried to punch him hard but missed, which threw off his balance. Nigel jabbed his forearm into the Ninja's chest, which pushed him back slightly, and then quickly used his opposite leg to kick him far away.

Nigel clicked his heels and flew into Wally, which took him by surprise. He dropped Wally on the ground, causing him to slide and then roll into the far wall. Hoagie stood up and breathed heavily.

"Thanks…" Hoagie gasped out

"New strategy. One at a time. Use the…"

"I know. I'll get it ready."

Hoagie quickly went away. Nigel felt a hard blow to his back, bringing him to a hand and his knees. The Ninja had returned.

Nigel stood and faced him again. The Ninja ran over to him, and Nigel precisely kicked the center of his shin. He grabbed it in pain. Nigel jumped up, turned a part way around, and kicked his chest which sent him stumbling back once again.

"That's IT!" The Ninja yelled. He dashed as quick as he could over to Nigel. But this time, Nigel didn't attack. He simply ducked down.

It was perfectly timed. The Ninja was looking at a thin black wire with two giant, circular, purple weights on each end flying over towards him. It wrapped around him in a matter of seconds. He fell on the ground and struggled to escape. Hoagie walked up to him, holding a steaming handheld canon in his hand. It was clear that he had shot the wire from behind Nigel's back.

"The J.A.W.W.I.R.E. I LOVE the J.A.W.W.I.R.E.!" Hoagie exclaimed

[J.A.W.W.I.R.E- Jawbreakers Attached With Wire Incite Rowdy Engagements]

"Who says that enormous jawbreakers are going out of style…" Hoagie started with his eyes closed

"LOOK OUT!" Nigel pushed him out of the way. A furious Wally slammed his fist down to the ground where Hoagie just was.

Hoagie loaded the canon again

"Say hello to the…"

Before he could finish, Wally kicked it out of his hand, grabbed it, and snapped it in two. He dropped the pieces on the ground

"Uh…nevermind then." Hoagie fearfully said. Nigel stood with a scowl.

Wally pulled his arm back and punched.

-x-

The door slammed open.

Abby had made it. She was the command room. The leader of the Teen Ninjas was facing the other way several paces in front of her. Abby could see that the leader was watching a security camera.

"Numbuh 5 of the Kids Next Door. Can't say I like what you've done with the place." The leader turned around. Black armor covered their entire face, and two short red stubs were pointing up on either side of the mask.

"A hole in the wall will be the least of your worries if you don't tell me where Cree Lincoln is."

Abby couldn't tell, but the leader was smirking

"So let's make this short and sweet. Where is Numbuh 11?" Abby demanded

"And what makes you so sure that she's here?"

"I got a message."

"And you followed it all the way here. Amazing."

The leader walked circles around Abby

"You know, not very many people, let alone children, would have made it this far."

"I had a good reason."

"Of course you did! But you also have skill…The truth is that I've been watching you for quite sometime, Numbuh 5. You've got something that your little KND playmates don't. Potential. Just like your sister."

The leader grabbed Abby's two shoulders

"You're better than them, Abigail. You don't need them anymore! If you join us, we'll help you unlock your true potential."

Abby lifted her cap, revealing her eyes

"How do you know my real name?"

The leader paused

"Your sister told me."

"So you do know where she is."

"Yes, Numbuh 5. Cree Lincoln is alive and well. And I'll tell you where to find her….if you agree to join. That's my proposal."

Abby lowered her cap and remained quiet

"Well?" The leader asked

"That's quite the proposal. Which is why Numbuh 5 would like to offer a counter proposal!"

Abby rapidly leapt forward and pinned the leader onto the ground

"Tell me where she is and I won't rip you in two!"

"That's big talk coming from such a little GIRL!"

The leader kicked Abby off and made her fall flat on her back. The leader stood up and Abby rolled forward and onto her feet. She swiftly took out her gumball gun and began shooting. The leader ran across the room and hid behind certain obstacles, which deflected the gumballs.

The leader grabbed a throwing star and thrusted it at Abby's hand. It was perfectly aimed. It cut Abby's hand and made her drop the gun on the ground, making the glass gumball compartment shatter.

While she was grabbing her own hand, the leader dashed forward, jumped into the air, and prepared to punch down on Abby's head. Abby quickly took off her cap, and caught the leaders' fist inside of it. While still locking the fist inside of her cap, Abby somersaulted around the leaders' arm and kicked their chest. The leader backfliped twice and landed standing straight up. Then, the leader ran forward and rammed hard into Abby, which made her hit the ground once again.

Abby had two seconds to put on her hat and look straight at the Ninja. All she could think of was how this guy seemed to anticipate every move she was going to make. Which meant that she had stop being predictable.

Abby grabbed the broken gun that was laying next to her and hurled at the leader. While the leader ducked, Abby lunged forward with a flying kick, which made contact. The leader slid back a few feet.

The leader reached down and pulled out a small, cylinder shaped object. But once they pressed a button on the side, it extended out and formed a large Ninja staff. The leader twirled it around, and tried to swing it at Abby like a baseball bat. Abby rapidly slid underneath it, and found herself at the Ninja's backside. Abby tried to kick, but the leader immediately turned around and blocked her kick with the staff. Abby used her other leg to kick her backwards, and then landed a few punches on the Ninja. The leader rapidly countered with quick attacks, and then managed to hit Abby's chest with the staff. They lightly tossed the staff in the air for a moment, hit Abby again, and then grabbed the staff again in time to slam it across her head once more. Abby was thrown off her balance, and had to grab the wall in order to not fall. She clenched both of her fists as hard as she could. She wasn't going to give up. Not now.

She darted at the leader once again, but this time, let out rapidfire punches that they couldn't seem to keep up with. A few were blocked, but most of them went through. The leader held out the staff horizontally in order to block the next attack, but this time, Abby had something else in mind. Abby jumped high into the air, and landed her elbow down at the center of the staff.

It broke in half. While the leader was looking in disbelief at what happened, Abby spun around in the air and kicked the leader's rib, which resulted in a quick slam to the floor.

"Is that all you got?" Abby asked

The leader looked to the side, and saw the headphones on the floor a few feet away.

-x-

Nigel was stalling in midair with his gumball gun out. He and Hoagie were both unloading their gumballs at Wally, who was hiding behind the lid of a trashcan.

Both Nigel and Hoagie ran out of gumballs at the same time.

"Uh oh…" Hoagie said. Wally rested his hand at the top of the lid, and threw it like a Frisbee into a nearby wall. It bounced off of it, and hit Nigel straight in the back, causing him to fall on his stomach. While Wally was looking at his work, Hoagie ran behind him and punched the side of his face. Wally barely reacted. Then he turned his head towards Hoagie

"Uh…Sorry." Hoagie said

Within seconds, Hoagie was thrown into the window of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Kuki had a worried look on her face.

"Hoagie?" She asked in fear

"I'm…gonn…a…be…feeling that in the morning…" Hoagie incoherently said it right before he fell on floor.

Nigel tackled Wally from the side and they fought while rolling around on the floor.

"Why are you doing this?!" Nigel asked, "You're one of us. You should be fighting on our side!"

"I take orders from the Teens. Not from bald kiddies like you!"

Wally kicked Nigel off of him. Nigel landed on his feet and then cracked his knuckles

"Well if that's the way it's gotta be…"

"Be my guest." Wally said tauntingly

Nigel flew over to him, and Wally stood there readily. Nigel tried to drop a punch, but Wally blocked it. Wally hit him back, and then Nigel countered. They kept hitting for a few moments. Nigel eventually kneed Wally's chest, grabbed his shoulders and threw him aside.

Nigel promptly flew back over to Wally and grabbed him by his left leg. He flew high above the floor and let Wally hang there

"Hey! Let me go you ding-dong!"

Nigel loosened his grip

"Not the smartest thing you could say in that situation…" Nigel said, "Cut this out and I'll set you down safely."

"You wouldn't actually drop me…"

"I don't know. My arm is getting quite tired."

Nigel held him even looser.

"Okay, fine! You win." Wally said

"Good." Nigel grabbed onto Wally's leg with both of his hands now. He began to descend down, "Now was that so hard?"

"Psych." Wally said. He pulled his own body weight up over his feet, and managed to put Nigel in a headlock in mid air. It became clear that Wally was just waiting for Nigel to be off his guard. They were falling down at a rapid pace now.

It was seconds before they slammed into the ground with a thud. And Wally had made sure that Nigel was on the bottom. Nigel had spirals in his eyes after the fall, and was groaning. Wally kicked Nigel aside and stood with his hands on his waist and a satisfied look on his face.

"Man, you kiddies will fall for anything. Time to give the leader the good new…"

"HEY!"

Wally slowly turned his head, and saw the Asian girl with the green sweater standing several feet behind him.

"Kuki…" Nigel whispered, "Don't…"

"Ah yes. I almost forgot about you." Wally said while massaging his fists. "The screaming little giiiirl, hahaha"

"Why are you being so mean!"

Wally jumped off of Nigel and walked closer to her

"I'm sorry if you think I'm mean, kid, but that's who I am."

"Yeah? Well I don't think so!"

"Really?" Wally said with a snide, amused look on his face. He was suddenly taken aback when Kuki unexpectedly put her arms around him

"Yep! I think that deep down you're just as cute and lovable as my rainbow monkeys!" She said with a smile

"Kuki! Stay away from him! He's dangerous!" Hoagie yelled

Wally violently pushed her off of him

"Are you out of your MIND, kid?!" Wally yelled

"No silly, my name's not kid, it's Kuki! Kuki Sanban! And I'll bet that you don't have very many friends with that attitude, do you?"

Wally wasn't sure if this was some type of trick

"No. What's it to you?"

"Well no wonder you're so angry! I'll be your first friend."

"My first friend?"

"Yes sir! And the first rule of friendship is that friends…"

Wally immediately grabbed Kuki's neck tightly. Kuki could barely speak or breathe.

"Kuki!" Nigel yelled

Nigel and Hoagie both had frightful looks on their faces. They both attempted to stand up immediately.

"Listen up, kid. I don't want friends. And I sure as heck don't need 'em. All I need is to defeat you."

"The….first rule of…friendship is that friends….share…things…with each other…" Kuki gasped the words out.

By now Hoagie and Nigel mustered the strength to stand up and they both were rapidly approaching Wally and Kuki.

"So…would you like a bite of my popcorn?"

Kuki produced the bag of popcorn from before. The smell entered into Wally's nose. His eyes popped out from behind his hair, and then he immediately let go of Kuki. He began coughing uncontrollably, and then he began to have an extreme headache. He grabbed onto his head, lowered to his knees, and grunted while clenching his teeth together. He let out a shout, let in and out a huge gasp of air, and then passed out on the floor.

Kuki was catching her breath by the time Nigel and Hoagie joined her.

"Kuki! You did it!" Hoagie cheered

Kuki could only focus on Wally's unconscious body

"Poor kid…" She said

"How are you feeling, Hoagie?" Nigel asked

"A little out of it to be honest…"

"That's okay. You two stay back and catch your breath. I'm going to go look for Numbuh 5." Nigel said while walking forward

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Hoagie asked

"I'll be fine!" Nigel clicked his heels together and flew into the hallway.

-x-

Abby jumped into the air. The leader grabbed the headphones and rolled out of the way.

Once Abby landed, the leader sprung up into Abby's chest, and pinned her to the wall.

"If you won't listen to me, then listen to these."

The ninja tried to quickly place them over Abby's head, but Abby used her fist to block the forearm. It soon turned into a test of strength. The leader was using all their force to try to bring the headphones down, and Abby was pushing against it with all her might as well.

After a moment of struggling, the headphones were extremely close to her ears. Abby unexpectedly bit down on the leader's hand and made them drop the headphones with a shout of pain. Abby kneed the Ninja away from her.

"Agh, yuck!" She said

She spat a couple of times to get the taste out of her mouth.

The Ninja used the opportunity to push her down. Abby twirled up to her feet again, and punched the leader, who punched her back. A series of punches and counters continued, and shifted Abby backwards. She quickly eyed the headphones and iPod on the floor.

From that moment she devised a plan, and had one shot at getting it right.

Abby stepped forward and punched the leader twice, and the leader returned one hard kick.

Now was her chance

Abby backflipped over the iPod, grabbed it in the millisecond that her hand was over it, and disconnected it from the headphones. Abby threw the iPod at the leader, who moved their head to dodge it. Abby then took the wire of the headphones, and threw it over to the leader like a lasso. The headphone jack caught the bottom of their helmet, and Abby used it to pull the leader as close as she could to her. Abby then used one last kick in the chest to send the leader flying backwards, and the headphone jack locked into the helmet, causing the helmet to fly clean off.

The helmet hit the floor and then rolled to a stop. Abby dropped the headphones and walked closer to the leader, who was on their hands and knees, looking at the ground.

"Now talk." Abby said

The leader showed their face to Abby.

Abby couldn't believe what she was seeing. That was the tamest way to put it. But in reality, she could feel her heart stop and her eyes immediately dry up at the unbelievable, incomprehensible sight that was in front of her. Her breathing slowed to a stop and her mouth hung open.

Cree was the leader.

No words were exchanged for what felt like a whole minute. It was only Cree's solemn face staring back at Abby.

The door opened and Nigel ran in. He stopped behind Abby.

"Numbuh 5. Is everything oka…"

He also was speechless when he realized what Abby was looking at. The silence persisted for a few more seconds.

"C…Cree?" Abby asked lightly

Cree threw a ninja star at control panel in the front of the room. It broke through a glass case and landed on a red button. A loud alarm sounded and a right light blinked throughout the entire spacecraft. The PA system produced a computerized voice.

"SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. PROCEED TO ESCAPE PODS IMMEDIATELY."

-x-

Hoagie and Kuki could see and hear the alarm as well. They frantically looked around

"That doesn't sound good!" Hoagie yelled

The Ninja who was trapped in the wire managed to break out once the alarm sounded. He got to his feet.

"Smell you kiddies later!"

He ran down hallway, presumably to go find an escape pod.

"SELF DESTRUCT WILL COMMENCE IN 60. 59. 58. 57…" The computer said

"Okay, that DOESN'T sound good at all!" Hoagie yelled louder

Kuki looked off to the corner

-x-

Abby and Nigel both looked around the room while the alarm rang. By the time they looked forward again, Cree was gone.

"Cree…" Abby said

"Numbuh 5, we have to go."

"But…"

"Now, Abby!"

Abby felt like she was having Déjà vu. Except this time, instead of having Cree disappear, she reappeared. Reappeared in the worst way imaginable.

"There's nothing more to do, Abby, we have to save ourselves!" Nigel pleaded

"Okay. Let's get out of here." Abby said

-x-

Hoagie was now sitting inside of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and booting up the computers.

"If tweedle slow and tweedle slower don't come back soon, we're gonna be in a lotta trouble here! Kuki, can you pass me the…"

Hoagie turned his head and gasped at what he was seeing.

"Kuki! Does this look like a lost and found to you? Put him down!"

Kuki was walking into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. with an unconscious Wally's arm around her shoulder.

"But he's a kid just like we are! We can't just leave him here to die!"

"But he's with the Teen Ninjas! Let them take him away, we can't risk having him on our ship. What if he wakes up and starts fighting again?!"

"He's my friend, Hoagie! And friends don't leave friends behind."

"He tried to choke you!"

"Yeah, well nobody's perfect!"

"Kuki, this isn't a joke!"

"Just look around, Hoagie! The Ninjas aren't coming back for him. So I'm saving him whether you like it or not!" Kuki insisted.

Hoagie made a long drawn out groan

"Okay, okay, okay." He stood up, "I'll grab his legs."

-x—

"19…18…17…"

Nigel flew down the hallway while grabbing onto Abby's two arms.

"I take back every joke I ever made about you putting rocket boosters in your shoes." Abby said

Nigel looked out the window and saw that the Teens were already escaping the spacecraft in escape pods.

-x-

Hoagie turned on the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. while Kuki rested Wally on the floor

"8…7…6…"

Just then, Abby and Nigel flew into the ship.

"What did we miss?" Nigel asked

"Death." Hoagie answered. He quickly closed the doors and prepared to take off. "Hold on everyone!"

-x—

"3…2…1…GOODBYE!"

The spacecraft exploded right as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. flew out.

The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. drifted for a few seconds away from the wreckage.

Nigel walked up behind Abby. She was sitting on a chair, and staring down at a blank screen.

"Are you okay?" Nigel asked

"Yeah…I just can't believe that…Cree. She's one of them."

"If I didn't see it myself I would have thought you were crazy."

Abby slowly nodded. Nigel smiled lightly

"But no crazier than you were before."

Abby giggled and wiped her eyes

"Sorry." Nigel said

"It's okay."

-x—

Wally breathed in deeply and then fluttered his eyelids. He slowly sat up and groaned. Hoagie stalled the ship, and then Nigel, Abby and Hoagie quickly grabbed nearby weapons and aimed it at him.

Wally opened his eyes and then jumped back half a foot.

"WOAH! What the heck?! I didn't steal it, I promise!"

"…didn't steal what?" Nigel asked

"I…I don't know! You guys are the ones aiming at me!"

"GUYS!" Kuki yelled as she stood in between them, "Where are your manners! Put those things away."

She pushed all of their weapons down.

"That guy tried to kill us!" Nigel said

"What? Wh..Where am I?" Wally asked, "Who are you people? And…why am I in a cruddy battle suit?"

Nigel grabbed his breastplate

"You can drop the act, kid."

"Nigel!" Kuki pushed him away, and then faced Wally.

"You'll have to excuse my friends here. They're not too fond of all that fighting you were doing before." Kuki explained

"Fighting? Wait, I was fighting you guys?"

"I think he really doesn't know…" Abby said quietly

"It's okay!" Kuki exclaimed, "It'll all come back to you. That's what usually happens when I forget stuff, which is a lot. Like..a lot a lot."

Wally paused

"I'm sorry, who did you say you were again?"

"Kuki!"

"Kuki?" Wally grabbed his head, "Why does that name seem familiar?"

"Because I was your first friend, silly! We just met like 10 minutes ago!"

"Friend?"

Wally looked around. Hoagie sat back down.

"You better be thankful. Your 'friend' there's the reason why we didn't leave you behind after what you did."

"So you don't remember anything. Do you?" Abby asked

"Agh. Bits and pieces I guess." Wally said, while stripping his battle armor off, revealing his orange sweatshirt underneath.

"Then I guess we might as well start over." Abby said, "I'm Abby, that's Hoagie, Nigel, and of course…"

"Kuki!" She cheered

"Well I'm Wally Beatles. And look, I'm sorry for whatever I did, alright? Could you guys just take me home?"

He turned the other way and spoke quieter

"Huh. Never thought I'd say that out lou…" Wally quickly grabbed his ear. He grunted in discomfort.

"Wally?" Kuki asked. She lightly grabbed his face with both her hands, "Wally, what's wrong?"

"Something in my ear!"

He turned his head to the side, and a few black dots fell out and landed on his sweatshirt. He rubbed his other ear and the same thing happened.

"Hey. What are those things?" Abby asked

"Hoagie." Nigel said.

"On it." He answered

He swept the dots into a petri dish and pulled a magnifying glass out from one of the cabinets.

He looked into it with his tongue sticking out. After a few minutes of examining them, Hoagie spoke up.

"Guys, take a look."

The four of them hovered behind him.

"It's like…some type of dead insect or something." Hoagie said

"In his eaaarr?" Kuki asked

"Yeah! Yeah, I remember putting on a pair of headphones that those ninjas gave me. That must've been why my ears sizzled so much after." Wally said

"Wait a minute." Nigel said, "These look an awful lot like…"

"Those N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S!" Abby finished. "But…they look a little different."

"2x4 technology?" Hoagie asked

"Yeah" Nigel said

"Do you have a schematic of the standard ones?" Hoagie asked

"I can pull one up." Abby answered. She went to the computer and began searching.

"So you can remember a little bit, then?" Hoagie asked Wally

"Yeah, it's slowly starting to come back to me."

Hoagie looked closer into the magnifying glass.

"What I'm not so sure of is what exactly killed these things…"

"Got it." Abby said. She turned the monitor and showed it to Hoagie. He took a moment to read it, and then looked back at the black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S

"Incredible." Hoagie said, "They must have retrofitted the function and the structure of it."

"In English please?" Wally asked

"Well…this…" Hoagie pointed at the computerized schematic, "This says that the these 'mites are supposed to be used for mind enhancement. Improved abilities, improved intelligence, improved speech, et-cetera. But given what happened to Wally, they must have found a way to change the settings from mind enhancement…to mind control. You know…have the improved capabilities with a side of complete allegiance to whoever reprogrammed them. It was an old design flaw that seemed to be patched recently. And given that it was able to affect Wally, I take it that they'll work on just about any kid regardless of if they're registered in the code module or not. "

"I'm still confused as to how the Teen Ninjas were able to get their hands on these in the first place? The Kids Next Door doesn't even have access to them yet." Abby deduced

They took a moment to think.

"What if it was Cree?" Nigel asked.

"What are you talking about?" Abby asked

"Numbuh 274 said that they shared the models with a few section leaders. And that was before they made all of those security improvements…She must have gotten a hold of them and shared them with the Ninjas."

"No. That can't be right." Abby said, "Because I think that that's the reason why Cree joined the Ninjas in the first place. Oh, it make so much sense now! They must have forced her into it! They did the same thing to her that they did to Wally."

"Maybe…" Nigel muttered. He wasn't so convinced.

"But…why?" Hoagie asked.

"Why what?" Nigel asked

"I mean, these aren't simple modifications we're looking at here. Why would the Ninjas go through the trouble of doing all of this?"

"Maybe they want more people. You know…a bigger army and such." Kuki said

"Or maybe they want to control an area." Nigel said

"It's both." Wally said. All eyes turned on him. Wally looked as if he was really trying to think.

"They're on their way now to invade…somewhere and use those people to..do something else. I think…"

"They told you what their plan was?" Hoagie asked

"Yeah…they..they told me at one point but I can't…I can't…"

"Yes you can." Abby said, "Come on, Wally. Try to remember for us."

"Ahhh. All this thinking is giving me a headache." He complained

"It's a headache worth having if it can lead us closer to them." Nigel said

"Uh…Uhhh…"

"Come on, Wally." Kuki touched his arm. "I know you can do it!"

"Uh, something about a…A moon?" Abby's eyes widened

"A..a..a moonb…"

"The Moonbase." Nigel said

"Yeah." Wally said while pointing at Nigel, "Yeah, that's where they're going. I think…I think they're bringing the Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S there."

Abby stood to her feet and went straight for the computer again. Nigel followed her.

"Numbuh 5, we have to get back to the Moonbase and warn them." He said

"Uh, that won't be necessary!" Hoagie said as he looked out the window.

"Why not?" Abby asked

"Because it seems like most of the Moonbase has come to us…" Hoagie answered. Abby and Nigel both looked out the same window he was looking out of. They saw a small fleet of KND spaceships.

At the forefront of the spaceships was Numbuh 86's. Abby was able to see her angry face looking down directly at her.

Abby breathed out. She knew that she was in serious trouble.


	6. The Team Complete

Moments later, Abby, Nigel, Kuki, Hoagie and Wally were inside of another ship, being escorted by KND officials.

Numbuhs 86 and 362 stepped out in front of them. Abby looked at Numbuh 362. 86 caught wind of what was going on.

"Yes! She sold you out." Numbuh 86 said, as if answering her question "She told the boss everything. About how you directly disobeyed our commands, about how you went on an unauthorized crusade…you know I'd go on, but I really don't think I have to."

"Numbuh 86, just listen to me." Abby said

"Who are these guys?" She asked, looking at Hoagie, Kuki and Wally.

"They're kids who I brought in. I completely take the blame, but I just need you to…"

"So let me get this straight." She interrupted, "Not only did you go off and disobey Global Command, but you brought these outside children along with you?!"

There was a short pause

"Did you bring them into the Moonbase?" Numbuh 86 asked

"Some of them, yeah."

86 crossed her arms

"And there's more too." Abby said, "We infiltrated the Teen Ninjas' ship."

"What?"

"And we think that they're planning to invade the Moonbase. They used the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S, and made them able to control peoples' minds. So we need to discontinue the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. project, but more importantly, we need to evacuate the Moonbase, or at least take defensive measures! Now look, I know I'm throwing away my job by saying all of this, but I'm saying it anyway. Because the fate of the Kids Next Door could depend on it."

Numbuh 86 stood with her arms crossed for a long enough time to make Abby uncomfortable.

"You're suspended." She said.

Abby closed her eyes and sighed

"Your genetic registration will be removed from the code module until further notice."

Numbuh 86 turned around and prepared to walk away

"Fanny, please! Just listen to me!" Abby called out

Numbuh 86 spun back around and stuck her finger at her

"Suspension or Decommissioning, Numbuh 5!" She said with a shout, "You decide."

"What about us…" Kuki asked quietly

"You guys don't have a choice. Your memories will be erased within the hour." She looked at Nigel, "And that goes for the intern too."

Numbuh 86 turned around and walked away.

Once she was gone, Numbuh 362 walked over to them

"Rachel, there's nothing you can say to make this better." Abby said

"I know. Because I'm the one who has to lock you up."

The guards flowed into the room.

"I never meant for it to end this way, Abby. But you crossed the line too many times. Frankly, it serves you right for putting me in trouble like that."

She walked away from Abby passed by Nigel, then Hoagie, then Wally, then Kuki.

"I'm sorry about your friend. I tried to warn her not to push things too far, but it was never enough. I tried to be her friend too, but it costed me too much. So now I'm forced to be her boss and her boss alone. If you had any sense, you'd leave her too."

It was evident that she had a lot of subdued anger in her voice. She calmed herself down, and put her hand on Hoagie's shoulder when she passed by him.

"I'm sure that you guys are all very talented. I mean you came all the way out here, which is no easy task."

She shook Wally's hand

"I'm sure you'll all go off and do a lot of good in the world. It's a pity that a rebel like Abby had to make it so that you guys could never be considered to join the KND. For what it's worth I feel like you guys could have made great agents some day. But I'm afraid I'll have to see to it personally that all of you are decommissioned immediately."

She put her hand into Kuki's long sleeve and shook her hand as well.

"I really hope you understand. Do you?"

"I…think so…" Kuki said

"Good." 362 said. "Lock them up."

The guards proceeded to cuff their wrists together

"Don't worry." 362 said, "Given Abby's track record, I'm sure she'll be decommissioned with you all soon enough."

"Rachel…how could you?" Abby asked

"I'm not talking to you anymore, Abby. You don't deserve my trust. You deserve disciplinary action, which you'll be getting a huge dose of soon. Didn't you hear me, guards? I said to take them away!"

The guards grabbed each of them and dragged them away. Abby took one last look at Numbuh 362. She closed her eyes and then turned her back on them. Abby covered her eyes behind her cap.

-x—

The fleet of ships were shown flying down in a line. One of them was dragging the abandoned S.C.A.M.P.E.R. along with a cable. The ship in the very back was the one that Abby, Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki and Wally were in. The one that carried the prisoners.

Two guards flew the ship, and in the back room were the prison cells. The five kids were sharing one big one.

" 'AY!" Wally yelled while banging on the bars. "Let us outta this cruddy prison cell or I'll sue!"

"You don't know how to sue, Wally." Nigel said

"Well I'll learn how to sue and then I will! Ugh."

He leaned his back against the bars and dropped down to a sit.

"What's the use?" He moaned.

"Wally..I have a question." Hoagie said.

"Yeah, what?"

Hoagie wiped his finger across Wally's ear and managed to pick up another black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. on it.

"What the…" Wally said

"When did you realize that you were free from Ninjas' control?"

"I don't remember!" Wally said

"I think I do." Nigel said. "I was close enough to see what happened. It was when Kuki brought her disgusting popcorn out. That's when Wally fell unconscious."

"Wait a minute, WAIT A MINUTE. That could explain it!" Hoagie said

"Explain what?" Nigel asked

"When I looked at them under the magnifying glass, I noticed that certain receptors were burnt off. At first I thought it was their touch receptors, but now I'm beginning to think that it was their synthetic smell receptors!"

"What are you talking about?" Wally asked

"The thing that made Kuki's popcorn smell so strongly was one thing and one thing alone. Cheese." Hoagie said.

He rubbed his other finger across Kuki's sweater, where some cheese had spilled. He put his two fingers together, and saw the black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. blow a fuse.

"Woooow." Kuki said

"I think I found their Achilles' Heel….or their Achilles…feelers…or Achilles…Antennas?"

"Just get on with it!" Wally yelled

"There's something about cheese's aroma that those N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S don't like. The cheese on Kuki's popcorn is what killed the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S, and freed Wally from the mind control! We have a cure!"

"What does it matter, anyway?"

Abby's voice came from a dark corner.

"Numbuh 5?" Kuki asked. Abby was sitting in the corner, grabbing her knees and facing the wall. Kuki knelt down beside her

"Are you crying?"

"No…" She sniffed, "I just got something in my eye is all."

"Yeah. Tears…" Hoagie said. She looked back and saw that all of them had joined her.

"You can talk to us, Numbuh 5." Nigel said. "What's the matter?"

Abby sniffed again.

"What's the matter?" She wiped both of her eyes again. "Look around you!" She yelled

"We're in a dang cell for crying out loud! You're all gonna get decommissioned. And it's because of me. I took all of you guys out of your normal lives, and brought you here to wind up in jail. Rachel was right. I should be the one in jail. Not you. In jail for bein' so stupid. I thought we were gonna accomplish something today. But all I accomplished was seeing my sister betray me, alienating Rachel, and now I've put you guys in more trouble than you deserve."

Abby held her hat and looked straight at it

"This mission was a failure from the start. Some Kids Next Door operative I turned out to be."

She threw her hat across the cell. The cell was so quiet that they could hear the hat plop down on the floor.

"It wasn't for nothing, Abby. If I had the chance of doing it all again I would." Nigel said

"He's right." Hoagie said, "We did a lot of good today."

"We set Wally free!" Kuki exclaimed

"And we know what the Ninjas are up to." Nigel said

"And now we know how to stop 'em!" Wally said

"You guys still don't get it, do you?" Abby asked, "It's over! We failed! I failed."

"Not yet." Nigel said, "We can still stop this."

He held out his hand. Abby tried to ignore him. But then Hoagie held out his hand. Then Kuki, and then Wally. Abby looked up at them for a moment.

"You guys still haven't given up on me, huh?"

"Article II, Section 3." Nigel said, "No operative ever gets left behind."

Abby slowly grabbed Nigel's hand, and all the rest grabbed onto her hand as well. They pulled her up to her feet.

"So you all really think that we can pull this off?" She asked while wiping her eyes, "You would follow me again after all the trash that I put you through?"

Nigel held out one finger

"Hey. All for one and one for all! I'm in all the way."

Hoagie held out two fingers

"Me too!"

Kuki held out three fingers

"Me three!"

Wally slammed his fist into his hand

"Hey, if it means putting the pound on those Ninjas who used me, then me four!"

He put out four fingers.

Abby looked around, and then slowly began to realize something. She smiled and held out five fingers.

"Call me crazy. But it looks to me like we just got our Numbers."

Nigel looked confused

"What are you saying?"

Abby pointed to Wally and then down the line

"Numbuh 4."

She pointed to Kuki

"Numbuh 3"

She pointed to Hoagie

"Numbuh 2"

She pointed at Nigel

"Numbuh 1. Of the Kids Next Door."

After a short delay, all of them started saying words of protest.

"Think about it." Abby interrupted, "We make the perfect team. Wally, you're strong. And you fight really well! Kuki, you're like, the heart. We might not have even saved Wally if it weren't for you."

"Well I guess 3 is my favorite number!" Kuki said

"And Hoagie with your technical know-how, it goes without saying, am I right?"

She walked up to Nigel

"And Nigel. You are a natural born leader."

"Abby, I'm no leader. I haven't lead anything in my life."

"You haven't led anything because no one's ever given you a chance to. No one's ever bothered to pay attention to the potential you have.

"Even if that's true, I'm definitely not capable of being Numbuh 1."

"I beg to differ. You told me yourself. It's your dream. So now it's time to make it a reality."

Abby had to work her handcuff around her side to pull something out of her pocket.

"And there's something I've been holding onto that just might help you look the part."

She produced a glasses case. When she opened it up, Nigel couldn't believe what he was seeing. They were a pair of sunglasses.

"Numbuh Zero's legendary sunglasses? You took them away? These are supposed to be on display!"

"Well soon enough they will be…"

She took them out of the case and tried to hand it to Nigel.

"I'm not worthy to wear these!" Nigel said, "And I'm not worthy of being our leader. I mean, think about it. You put us together. You're our unofficial leader already!"

"And as unofficial leader, I make you the official leader."

Nigel looked down at the sunglasses

"Even if it's just until we take back the Moonbase." Abby said, "Let's see what you've got."

Nigel looked back at Abby

"One. Day. Only." Nigel said, "Then we put these back."

Abby nodded once

"It's a deal."

Nigel took off his regular glasses, and then picked up the sunglasses. He slowly put them over his eyes and set them straight.

"How do I look?" He asked

"Like a sector leader." Abby smiled, "So let's hear it for Numbuh 1. The leader of Sector V."

Abby, Hoagie, Kuki and Wally clapped.

"I thought you said Sector V didn't exist anymore." Nigel said

"It does tonight." Abby replied.

"So make the call…boss." Hoagie said with a smirk

"Well first things first." Nigel said, "We need to find a way out of this cell and these handcuffs."

"I don't suppose these will help!" Kuki said. She held out two small keys in her hand. Everyone gasped.

"What the…" Wally said, "How did you…How did you get those?!"

Everyone else had perplexed looks, and the same question on their mind

"Well…" Kuki smiled

-x-

_Flashback _

"_It's a pity that a rebel like Abby had to make it so that you guys could never be considered to join the KND." Rachel had said, "For what it's worth I feel like you guys could have made great agents some day. But I'm afraid I'll have to see to it that all of you are decommissioned immediately."_

_She put her hand into Kuki's long sleeve and shook her hand as well._

But no one else except Kuki realized what had actually happened when Rachel shook her hand. She reached into Kuki's sleeve, and then carefully slipped two small keys into Kuki's palm.

"_I really hope you understand. Do you?" Numbuh 362 asked, while looking Kuki in the eye_

"_I…think so…" Kuki said_

"_Good." 362 said. _

-x-

Abby widened her eyes

"Rachel believed us! She was just putting on an act." Abby said with an excited smile

"Of course! She must have known that none of the guards would be able to see Kuki's hand." Hoagie said

"You mean, Numbuh 3." Abby said, "We should probably communicate with our numbers."

"Yeah, it'll make us sound cooler that way!" Kuki said while raising her arms in joy.

"Well then 'Numbuh 1', it looks like we have our way out." Wally said while crossing his arms, "Now what?"

"Now we go save a Moonbase."

-x-

"So first thing's first." Nigel explained.

All five of them had dropped their handcuffs onto the ground, but were still in the cell, sitting in a circle.

"Every KND certified carrier is required to have an emergency kit in the back left corner of the ship. Once we're out of this cell, Numbuhs 2 and 5 will sneak into the back, and get the duct tape from the kit. So Step 1. Obtain the tape." Nigel said

-x-

Hoagie and Abby were shown quietly unlocking the prison cell with the key, and carefully tiptoeing away from the cockpit. Once they were in the tail of the plane, Hoagie opened a cabinet, and spotted a duffle bag. He knelt down and opened it up. Abby reached in and pulled out a large roll of gray duct tape.

"Numbuh 5 thinks this should do the trick…" Abby said quietly

"You know, it really concerns me how you refer to yourself in the third person like that…" Hoagie said

"Come on." Abby whispered

-x-

"Then, they'll subdue the copilots." Nigel said

-x-

Two similar looking kids were copiloting the ship. One was a boy and the other was a girl, but their genders were barely distinguishable under their heavy clothing and face coverings. They both had light skin, and wore green and yellow bodysuits, with dark green gloves and boots. They both had an identical pair of what looked like heavy duty swim goggles. They both also had umbrella tops that covered their hair-they boy had a red one and the girl had a blue one.

They boy yawned

"You tired, Numbuh 59?" the girl asked

"Sorta, Numbuh 58. Man, hauling these prisoners back and forth weighs ya down after a while, doesn't it?"

"I know what you mean."

"I'd just like to kick back and lie down for a while."

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Both of them turned around

"Well you're in luck." Hoagie said, "You'll have plenty of time to do that, now!"

Abby unrolled the tape

"Oh poopie." Numbuh 59 muttered.

-x-

Numbuhs 58 and 59 were both thrown into the cell, with tape around their hands, feet and mouths. They were also stripped to their underwear and undershirts.

"Sorry, guys. But trust us, this is for your own good. We'll be back for ya'll soon enough." Abby said as she closed the prison door.

Both of them yelled incoherently right before the door locked.

-x—

"Unfortunately they confiscated our weapons and utility belts." Nigel continued to explain, "But one of the ships that came to arrest us carries all of the guards' weapons, as well as our own weapons inside. Before we do anything else, we need a way into that ship."

"How are we gonna do that?" Hoagie asked

"Since Numbuhs 3 and 4 are the closest to their body types, they'll take Numbuh 58 and 59's outfits, and pose as them for the duration of the journey."

-x-

Wally examined the green bodysuit that he was wearing, with the goggle over his forehead. Kuki was dressed in her suit as well.

"Uh, Numbuh 1. I don't think this is such a good idea…Numbuh 3 and I look nothing like those other two guys!"

"It shouldn't matter." Nigel said, "Numbuhs 58 and 59 wear enough protective headgear to make you two indistinguishable from them. Even I can't recognize you."

Nigel grabbed onto Wally's goggles and put them over his eyes. Hoagie and Abby was seen in the background piloting the ship.

Kuki laughed and pointed at Wally

"What?!" He demanded

"You just look so funny!"

"No funnier than you do!" Wally yelled back

"Enough, you two." Nigel said, "It's time for phase 3."

-x—

"Phase 3 is getting Numbuhs 3 and 4 onto the weapon ship. The hard part will be convincing the other pilots to let them on. That will be left to Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 5."

-x—

Abby spoke into the intercom.

"Uh, Numbuh 58 to carrier D, do you copy?" She said, trying unsuccessfully to disguise her voice.

"Numbuh 44a of carrier D, I copy. What's the problem?"

"Uhh, I need to use your…bathroom. Over." Abby said

"Our bathroom?"

"Yeah. The one in here broke." Abby said "We'll need you to let us dock in your ship for a minute."

"Hey. You don't sound like Numbuh 58…"

Abby's face fell in fear. She and Hoagie nervously looked at each other

"Why is your voice so scratchy?" Numbuh 44b asked over the intercom.

"We've been made…" Abby whispered, while putting her hand over the intercom

"Not yet." Hoagie said. He snatched the intercom form her and spoke into it

"Numbuh 59 to carrier D. Between you and me, Numbuh 58 had one too many root beers on the way here. It's starting to jack up her voice a little bit, and she has to. You know. Hurl."

"Root beer? We're not allowed to drink root beer while flying…"

"How's about I cut you guys a deal. If you don't report this to Global Command, then we may have two cans in the back with your names on them. On us."

There was a drawn out pause. Abby and Hoagie both had sweat drip down their foreheads.

"What kind of root beer are we talkin' about?" Numbuh 44b asked back

"The real stuff. Not any of that diet, dentist friendly garbage."

There was another short pause

"Send her in, over."

"Will do."

Abby and Hoagie gave each other a high five.

The prison carrier ship soon flew up next to the weapon carrier ship. Their doors touched and locked into each other.

-x—

"Once the path is open, that's Numbuh 3 and 4's cue to move in."

-x—

Wally and Kuki entered the weapon ship with their disguises. Numbuhs 44a and 44b were both at the door to greet them. They both had tan skin, green pilot suits, and gray helmets with "44" written in the middle of them. They both looked exactly alike.

"How are you feeling?" Numbuh 44a asked

Wally grabbed his stomach and faked an American accent.

"Agggh. I dunno how much longer I can stand like this pa-ha-haiiinn. Where did you say your bathroom was?"

"Uh, down the hall and to the left."

"Thanks!" Wally ran off, and the door automatically closed soon after. Numbuh 44b had a confused look on his face.

"I thought that Numbuh 59 said that you were the sick one, Numbuh 58." 44b said.

"Hey, yeah!" 44a agreed

Kuki began to get nervous. They had accidentally mixed up the story!

"Uhhhhhhh.." Kuki started while they both stared at her.

"Hey!" Kuki eventually said, "Are you two identical twins?"

"Well, yeah." Numbuh 44a said, "but I'm 5 minutes older."

"So who got the brains?" She asked

"Clearly I did." Numbuh 44b said

"What are you talking about?" Numbuh 44a asked in unbelief. "I got the brains!"

"No you didn't."

"Yeah I did!"

Neither of them realized that the prison carrier ship had left and circled around to the other side of their ship.

"No you didn't!" They both faced each other, "Mom always said it!" Numbuh 44b continued, "You didn't get the brains, and, no offense, you didn't get the looks either."

"We look the same, stupid!" Numbuh 44a said, while shoving his brother's chest.

"Don't call me stupid, stupid!" Numbuh 44b yelled back

"Oh, so I'm the stupid one, right?"

"If you weren't so stupid, you would have realized that that's what I've been saying this whole time!"

"You wanna mess with me, bro?"

"YEAH, I DO!"

They both grabbed each others' shirts

"Boys, boys, please!" Kuki said. Both of them turned to look at her.

"Clearly there's only one way to settle this." She said. She put both hands behind her back.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Kuki asked

They stared blankly at her

"What does that have to do with anything?" 44a asked

"Yeah. We're talking about being smart, not psychic!" Numubh 44b said angrily

"Well yeah, but if you were smart, you'd be able to mathematically deduce the probability of the numberical…pi-charting..fractional…system…concerning…the..fingers behind my back! It's in the math books! Look it up, it exists!"

Both Numbuh 44a and 44b raised their eyebrows

-x-

Wally snuck past the bathroom and into the next room. He opened it up, and saw an entire room full of weapons. He glanced and saw the confiscated utility belts, on a nearby table, but then he shifted his gaze to the middle of the room. In the middle were five large, empty, super soaker water guns hanging on a rack.

"Now we're talkin' my language."

Wally scurried to the left wall, where an emergency exit was. He looked outside the window and saw the prison ship lingering next to it. Wally opened the emergency exit once the doors were aligned. Nigel, Hoagie, and Abby stepped jumped in.

"Good work, Numbuh 4. Now to take these weapons."

"How many do you think we'll need?" Hoagie asked

"As much as we can carry." Nigel said.

"Where's Numbuh 3?" Abby asked

-x-

"Uhh, 4." 44b said

"Nope!"

"7?" 44a asked

"Na-uh."

"3." 44b said

"Oooh, good choice!" Kuki said

"Hah. In your face!" 44b taunted as he poked 44a

"But it's still not right." Kuki said plainly

"What?!"

-x—

"She's been stalling them for that long?" Hoagie asked, while they were loading the weapons onto their ship.

"It's a good thing we brought her along, after all." Nigel said, "I never thought about it, but creating diversions is a perfect job for her."

"Well yeah." Hoagie said. "Have you ever met anyone as distracting as Kuki?"

-x—

44b sighed, "1!" He yelled

Kuki shook her head

"9"

"NOPE!" She said with a smile.

"10!" 44a cut in

"MM-MMM"

-x-

Wally packed the 5 super soakers into the ship

"These will definitely come in handy." Hoagie said

"Okay, that's enough." Nigel said

"But we have space for more…" Wally said

"We don't have much more time to loose. We should move out before we're detected." Nigel said

-x-

"2?" 44a asked

"Nope"

"6"

"Nope"

"0!"

"Sorry, Charlie!"

"We've guessed all the numbers!" 44b yelled

"We give up." 44a said

Kuki held out her two pointer fingers next to each other

"11! See? 1 and 1"

They both stood in anger

"What?" Kuki asked

"You know, I've never hit a girl before." Numbuh 44b said, "BUT I'M GONNA!"

His brother had to hold him back

"Not my fault you can't guess a simple number…" Kuki said with her eyes closed and her hands on her hips

"Hey…" Numbuh 44b said, "Where did Numbuh 59 go?"

"Yeah! He's been gone for a while now."

Both of them marched down the hall

"Uhh, you don't wanna go there guys!" Kuki pleaded while following them, "How about best 2 out of 3? 3 out of 5? 5 out of…however many 5 is out of?!"

Numbuh 44a held the door to the bathroom. Kuki closed her eyes.

They suddenly heard a flush. Wally came out with his arms behind his head.

"Whew. That really did it." He said in his fake accent, "I feel like a new man. Thank you both ever so much. You're lifesavers."

He put his hand on 44b's shoulder and pointed at him

"Handsome dude, by the way." Wally patted him, and he and Kuki went back to the front door. The prison ship was already waiting. The automatic door opened.

"Well wouldn't wanna hold you guys back anymore, so I'll catch you two later!"

"Adios Amigos!" Kuki yelled.

They both jumped into the ship, and it took off. Numbuhs 44a and 44b saw the trail of smoke behind it.

"So…no root beer then?" Numbuh 44a asked sadly. His brother put his hand on his shoulder.

-x—

"Phase 4…" Nigel said while on the ship, "We fill up all of our weapons with the black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S' only weakness. Pure, melted cheese."

"I have some at my house!" Kuki exclaimed while raising her hand

"No. We'll need more than that. We'll have to go straight to the source." Nigel said

"You don't mean…" Abby started. She looked back from the ship's control panel to ask.

"Yes, Numbuh 5. I'm talking about the Wisconsin cheese factory. Where all cheese is born."

"Will we have enough time to do that?" Hoagie asked

"Sadly, no. If my estimations are correct, the Teens will be there before our fleet even arrives."

-x—

A silent shot showed Numbuh 362 and 86 docking at the Moonbase along with the fleet of KND operatives. Once they opened the door, a group of Teen Ninjas were already waiting for them. Each of them had earplugs in. One of the Teen Ninjas stepped to the front of the pack with a closed jar of live, Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S under his arm.

Numbuhs 362 and 86 reached to take out their weapons, but he opened the jar of before they could respond on time. The 'mites swarmed around them, and then filled the entire moonbase like a dark cloud.

The kids all ran around in panic, but not a one of them was able to escape being infected with N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S.

Someone knocked on Numbuh 274's door. Once he stood up opened it, he found himself looking straight at Cree without her helmet. Cree smiled, and opened her palm up, freeing more N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S to infect him as well.

-x—

"But once we get there…" Nigel continued, "We'll be ready to fight back."

"Even if we're fighting our own friends and…family?" Abby asked

"The hope is that we'll be able to cure them with the cheese, like we did for Numbuh 4. That's why we're taking the time to stop for it." Nigel said

"Makes sense to me. You can't go into war without your ammo." Hoagie said.

"Is that what this is?" Wally asked as he slipped his sweatshirt back on, "A war?"

"I'd prefer to think of it as our first mission." Nigel said

"We're approaching Wisconsin. Get ready for landing." Hoagie said

"Alright, team." Nigel said with his hands behind his back. "We know our plan. So let's get to our battle stations."

Abby smiled. It was hard to believe that just a few days ago, Nigel was the unconfident intern who was never given a chance to prove himself. And as far as she was concerned, he already did.

"Sir, yes sir." Abby said as she turned around and pulled the lever.

-x-

A montage that was well timed out to the KND theme song showed the five kids infiltrating the cheese factory.

Two adult men in lab coats walked by. Abby's silhouette was shown rolling behind them and running across the room. She soon found herself standing next to a reservoir filled with melted cheese. She took the hose that it was attached to, and stuck it into her super soaker gun. She pressed a button and watch the cheese flow in.

In another room, Wally fell vertically from the ceiling with a rope attached to his waist. Once he was on the ground, he looked over and saw an assembly line of string cheese. took a few balloons out of his pocket, and stuffed the balloons with the string cheese. He then moved over and put on a Bunsen burner, and settled the balloon over the burner in hopes that the cheese would melt inside.

Kuki opened a door to a dark room, and then turned on the light. She found that she was looking into a room full of canned Easy Cheese.

'YAYYY!" She yelled.

She ran over and emptied two spray cans into her wide-open mouth. Wally slammed open the door behind her.

"Numbuh 3! Could we stay focused please?!"

"Sorry…" She attempted to say with her mouth full

Hoagie was crouching down behind a pillar and screwing a bolt into what looked like a grenade. When he screwed it too tight, a little bit of cheese oozed out of it. He set it down next to a dozen other cheese explosives that were at his feet.

Nigel hung from a rope over a big pot of cheese. He held what looked like a backpack in his two hands, and then submerged it under the cheese. Once he pulled it out, he pressed a button on the side. The backpack produced two identical rocket boosters on each end, but instead of spitting out fuel, it spit out cheese. Nigel put the backpack on and then climbed out.

When they were outside the factory, the five of them reattached their utility belts one by one, and loaded all of their weapons.

"Numbuh 5, ready!"

"Numbuh 4, ready!"

"Numbuh 3, ready!" Kuki wiped two lines of cheese on her cheeks like a football player

"Numbuh 2, ready!"

"Numbuh 1, ready!" Nigel said. "It's time."


	7. The Final Battle

An hour later, the front door to the Moonbase slammed wide open. From left to right, Abby, Hoagie, Nigel, Kuki, and Wally stood in a V formation with the cheesy super soakers in hand.

It was worse than they imagined. The N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S had already run their course. The alarm was sounding, presumably because someone tried to alert the Moonbase of the impending danger. But it was already too late. Everyone's eyes were lifelessly glazed over. Once the five walked into the room, they all turned their heads towards them.

The 5 walked forward with serious expressions. They had cheese earplugs, and small pieces of cheese dangling around their necks like necklaces.

"We all have our assignments, so stick to the plan." Nigel said, "Remember, don't hurt anybody. Let the cheese do its work."

"And the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S?" Wally asked as he looked up at the swarming mechanical insects near the ceiling.

"Shouldn't be a problem as long as we keep our necklaces on. They won't go near what they know can kill them." Hoagie said And remember, once we're all in position, we have to say the line."

"We'll see about that…" Nigel said

Numbuh 60 stepped out a few yards in front of them. They stopped.

"Who are you guys?"

Nigel spoke up

"We're Sector V."

"Who do you work for?"

"The Kids Next Door. And we're here to defeat the Teen Ninjas."

Numbuh 60 frowned. "GET THEM!" He yelled.

All of the kids in the Moonbase started running at them. The five continued walking forward

"Ready…." Nigel said

They got closer

"Ready…."

They got even closer

"Ready…..CHEESE 'EM!"

Sector V started running and opened fire on everyone else. Melted cheese flew everywhere, and bodies were already beginning to drop to the floor in unconsciousness.

They were soon separated by the crowd, and forced to shoot out cheese at a frantic pace. Hoagie was the first to run out of ammo.

"You're kidding." He put the gun in the holder on his back. "Numbuh 3!" He yelled over the crowd, "Easy Cheese me!"

Kuki grabbed a spray can of Easy Cheese from her belt and shook it up. She threw it over to Hoagie. He jumped up and caught it.

His thumb pressed down on the nozzle, and he sprayed it into Numbuh 34's face. Numbuh 34 fell down instantly.

Wally knelt down and shot his gun twice on both sides. He then reached into his belt and rolled a circular grenade under the mob. He turned around and covered his ears right when the cheese grenade exploded.

Nigel used his cheese ejecting jetpack to fly over everybody.

"Alright team! We know our places. It's time to…"

Abby didn't bother to listen anymore. She was already sprinting towards the far door and jumping over the other kids to get there. She shot a few of them to get around, and managed to stick one kid in the mouth with a solid piece of cheese on her way past.

"Numbuh 5?" Nigel said while hovering in air, "Numbuh 5 where are you goin…"

That's as far as he got before someone shot 4 gumballs through his jetpack. His jetpack uncontrollably flew all over the place, and eventually slammed Nigel across the room, and into the main stage where speeches were given. Nigel disconnected his jetpack and rubbed his head in pain. The tall shooter stepped up onto the podium and stopped in front of him. Nigel slowly opened his eyes.

He was looking up at Numbuh 274. The boss pocketed his gumball gun.

"Numbuh…274, sir."

274 wound back his leg and kicked hard

-x-

More kids poured in from each of the doors.

"Numbuh 4! Numbuh 3! We need to get a move on now!" Hoagie yelled, "We're already behind schedule!"

He, as well as Kuki and Wally were being swamped with other kids.

Wally grunted, "There are too many of them!" He screamed

"We can't give up!" Hoagie replied

While fighting, one of the kids inadvertently slipped Kuki's left sleeve back. He looked down, and realized that she had a purple wristband around her forearm with a drawing of a Rainbow Monkey in the middle. The fighting seemed to stop for a moment

"What…is that?" They boy had a fireman cap that read "15" in big bold numbers.

"Oh this?" Kuki said, "It's my Special Rainbow Monkey Super Duper Bracelet! I have 100 more at home if you want one."

Numbuh 15 stopped, and then began laughing hysterically. "Wait, lemme get this straight. YOU watch RAINBOW MONKEYS?! What a loser!" He howled with laughter, as did all of the kids around him.

"But…Rainbow Monkeys are...adorable…" Kuki said quietly while rolling out her sleeve "they're cool..."

"Sure, if you think stupid little talking monkeys are cool! Get it through your head, little girl! Rainbow Monkey are STUPID!"

"Hey! You take that back!" Kuki said angrily

"Or what? You're gonna sick your cuddly monkeys on me!" He and the crowd continued laughing. Kuki's face began to turn red

"I…said….Take." Her voice turned into a grunt

"That..." Her eyes lit up like fire

"BAAAACCCKKKK!"

Kuki spun around at a super sonic pace and shot everyone around her with the cheese gun. She jumped high in the air, and threw down five cheese balloons, which knocked out everyone in a 6 foot radius. She landed, and picked up Numbuh 15 by the shirt. He was groaning incoherently. She then stuck a large wad of cheese in his mouth and threw him aside.

She then slid on her back and into the next crowd of people, shooting her gun upright and yelling. She rolled on the ground and then stood up straight.

She blew once at the tip of her gun, and all of the nearby kids fell over simultaneously.

"Don't EVER diss the Rainbow Monkeys."

Kuki put her gun away and skipped past Hoagie and Wally, who were both frozen with their mouths wide open.

"The coast is clear, guys! Come on!"

She left for a moment. She came back a second later.

"Ugh. Do I have to do EVERYTHING around here?!"

She dragged then both away by their shoulders.

-x—

Nigel cautiously held his cheese gun out at Numbuh 274.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't everyone's favorite intern." 274 taunted

Nigel eased his finger on the trigger. 274 stood right over him.

"So. What are you waiting for? Stick me with the cheese." 274 said

Nigel's hand shook

"What's that? You can't?" He scoffed, "You thought it was gonna be easy, didn't you? You'd just walk up to me and pull the trigger. But you can't look me in the face and shoot me with that. Because you know that I'm the boss around these parts. And doing that to me could mean that you'd throw away every opportunity of becoming an operative."

"That's not you talking, sir. It's the Teen Ninjas. They've infected you with N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S, and I'm going to free you from them. I just want you to understand before I do this."

"Oh I understand alright."

274 slapped the weapon away from Nigels hands. He then kicked it back, and it slid off of the podium. Nigel reached for another weapon, but 274 knocked him aside before he could do it.

"I understand that you're a coward."

Before Nigel knew what hit him, 274 had stripped off Nigel's utility belt, along with all of his weapons.

"You know, the test scores aren't the reason why you never made it upstairs."

274 knelt on Nigel's back while he disarmed his weapons.

"It's because you're too soft. You've never done anything worthy of being a KND operative. Even now. You hide behind your weapons in hopes to cure me. You know you can't put up a fight."

Nigel pushed his back up, and hauled 274 off of him and rolled away.

"But the Teen Ninjas can change that."

Nigel and Numbuh 274 stood up head to head with each other

"Submit." 274 said

"Never!" Nigel yelled

They both ran for each other with their fists out.

-x-

Hoagie, Kuki and Wally were inside of what looked like a boiler room. They were by themselves.

"What are we doing down here?" Kuki asked

"Numbuh 1 told me that there are two rooms like this." Hoagie explained. "Numbuh 4, give me your backpack."

Wally handed it to him.

"Right now we're in the basement of the east wing. This is where half of the sprinkler systems get their water supply from." Hoagie said

Hoagie took out a large, rectangular handheld device with a dial on top. He pushed a few other buttons and then set the dial. He synchronized the dial's time to his watch.

"Give me your wristwatch, Numbuh 4."

Wally handed it over and Hoagie synchronized his watch too. Wally looked up.

"If we're gone then why is there still fighting going on up there?" He asked

"I take it that some of the kids have woken up. One they're awake they should be back to normal. Hopefully, that means that they'll be fighting on our side.

He gave the watch and the device back to Wally.

"What are we gonna to do with this?" He asked while putting his watch back on.

"You two are going to put it in the water tank that's down the rotating stairs not too far back. One you get there, just drop it in. The device will do the rest. There will also be a blue lever next to the tank, and you need to pull it once your watch reaches zero.

"Wait. Did you just say 'you two?'" Wally asked

"Yes. I'll go to the west wing and set the other one myself. You and Numbuh 3 should be able to take care of this one yourselves. Once our watches reach zero, we'll pull our levers at the same time. It'll have a better effect if it's all nice and synchronized. The others' watches should automatically update with the countdown, too.

"But neither of us have been down here before!" Wally complained

"Neither have I. Numbuh 5 was supposed to help us. But who knows where she ran off to…"

"Actually, I think I have a pretty good guess." Wally said

-x—

One kid's face got splattered with the cheese, and he crumpled over onto the ground and remained still.

Abby ran past him as quickly as she could.

Two kids chased after Abby right before she rolled under a door that was automatically sliding shut. The moment before she rolled in, she dropped a present for the 2 kids who were chasing her. They didn't even realize it until the hand grenade exploded and sprayed the cheese on both of them, throwing them both into the nearby wall.

Abby rolled up to her feet and dashed up the stairs

Moments later, she had made it to the top floor. She wiped the sweat off of her brow and forced herself to stop breathing so heavily. Now that she was on the top floor, she had finally made it to where she wanted to go.

It all came down to this. She swallowed, loaded her weapon, and kicked down the door that was in front of her.

The room was empty. She slowly walked inside. With each step, she could hear the metal knock against the bottoms of her white shoes. But it wasn't the only sound she could hear. She could hear the nervous beating of her own heart, as if pleading with her to exit the room. But she knew that she couldn't. She had to do this. The others had to have been in position by now, so now, it was up to her.

She scanned each corner of the room whilst hiding behind her weapon, in order to ensure that she was alone. She turned completely around and faced the door, while walking backwards.

That was her first mistake.

Before she knew what hit her, she tripped backwards and dropped her gun about halfway across the room. Abby shut her eyes and shook her head in order to regain her composure, and looked straight up in complete shock. A shadow loomed over her defenseless body.

"You really should learn how to knock. Sis."

It was Cree. She had her helmet off, a serious expression, and her hands held behind her back.

Abby composed herself, held onto the floor, and stood up straight.

"Cree." She said gravely. Cree took a moments silence.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this wa..."

Abby reached into her back pocket and pulled out a smaller cheese gun. She quickly loaded it and pointed it at Cree.

"Don't worry, Cree. This disgusting N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S will leave you soon."

"There are no N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S telling me what to do, Abigail. I'm a Teen Ninja by choice."

"GET OUT OF HER HEAD YOU NASTY INSECTS!"

Abby shot a large load of cheese onto Cree's face. Abby didn't move afterwards. She was expecting Cree to fall over unconscious like the others. But Cree didn't move either. She just stood there. Then, she casually wiped the cheese off.

Abby's eyes and mouth opened wider and wider. She was beginning to realize the truth.

"First of all. Ew." Cree said, while shaking the cheese away "And second of all. I already told you. I was never infected. I'm one of them, now, Abby."

"I…." Abby started. But she couldn't say anything else. It was too difficult to process. She eventually mustered up a few more words as she came to a realization.

"On the night that you disappeared. They said that someone tipped them off…" Abby muttered

-x-

"_We got an anonymous tip that you were coming this way. And from the looks of it, it was a pretty good one." The Ninja had said _

_-x—_

"It was you?" Abby asked

"Yes, Abby. I convinced them to capture me. It was all staged."

"…How?" Abby whispered

Cree paced around the room.

"It wasn't the first time I had spoken to them. The truth is that in the months approaching my 13th birthday, I was already considering joining the Ninjas. It started one night when I was out on a mission. A solo mission. And I was captured for real by the Teen Ninjas' employer."

"They're…you're...working for someone else?"

Cree smirked, "Don't ask me to tell you who. Even sisters have to keep secrets from each other every once in a while, right?"

Abby didn't know what to say. Cree took the opportunity to continue.

"Regardless, he told me that he had been taking notice my skill over the years. And he said he wanted to offer me a choice. I could keep fighting with the Kids Next Door, only to be decommissioned one day and thrown aside like trash. Or I could put my skill into something a little more…permanent. And that was it. He let me go after that."

"So you were planning to double cross us this whole time."

"Not at first, no. At first I tried to forget that conversation. But the thought grew on me. With each day, I was beginning to feel more and more underused. Underappreciated. Underemployed. You see, Abby, kids are small. And I don't just mean this literally. Everything about them is tiny. They have only a little bit of strength, a little bit of common sense…a little bit of potential. And nothing more. I needed real training. Training that could take the skill I had, and make me more powerful than I ever was before. So on the morning of my decommissioning, I finally accepted. I told the Teen Ninjas where we would be, and asked them to fake my death."

"Why? Why would you do that to me?"

"I did it _for_ you, Abigail. I figured that it would be easier on you if you thought I had died that day. I couldn't picture your look of disappointment when you learned that I accepted an a place with the Teen Ninjas. And that I had become their leader. But eventually, I knew I'd have to tell you the truth."

"So you sent me those coordinates."

"I knew that you'd jump at the first sight of them. But I didn't expect you to bring company. And I have to hand it to you, these new friends of yours are quite the bunch of fighters...But it doesn't matter."

Cree stopped to look Abby in her eyes. She turned around and kept walking

"No one can stop what's about to come. Not even them." Cree said

-x-

Kuki and Wally ran down the spiral stairwell.

"You sure this is where we're supposed to go?" Kuki asked

"I don't know! It's what the kid with the goggles said."

Wally stopped in his tracks before he reached the bottom of the stars

"What?" Kuki asked

"Is it true what he said before? That you're the one insisted on saving me?"

Kuki smiled

"Everyone needs a friend, Numbuh 4! It's what I learned from the Rainbow Monkey show!"

They heard footsteps coming from the floor under them.

"Come on, let's go!" Wally said

They made it to the floor and ran forward. The whole room was poorly lit. A couple of giant, circular lights hung by a rope from the ceiling above, but they were turned off. The main source of light came from the massive water tank that made everything else in the room reflect light blue.

"Is that it over there?" Kuki asked

"I think so. But who else is down her…"

Their question was soon answered. A Teen Ninja dropped down to the floor in front of them.

"Wally, Wally, Wally." He teased, while firmly grabbing onto his Ninja stars "What are you doing in those ridiculous clothes again? You need to put on your battle armor and come back to us. "

"That battle armor gave me a wedgie!" He yelled, "Oh, and I aint fightin' with you guys no more! You tricked me!"

"Yeah, we did, didn't we? But that wasn't very hard to do."

Wally ran over to him

"Was it as hard as this?!"

Wally landed a swift punch to his face. The Teen rolled backwards, and landed on two feet and a hand.

"Alright. If that's the way you wanna play it." The Ninja said. He took out more throwing stars and began to deal them out towards Wally. Wally rolled under one of them and jumped over two more. He stopped next to Kuki, who was taking cover.

"Kuki, I'm going to need the rest of your Easy Cheese."

"Aren't you supposed to call me Numbuh 3?" Kuki asked as she handed two cans over to him.

"Well if we're gonna be friends, we can at least be on a first name basis, right?"

Kuki smiled from ear to ear

"Uh-huh!" She said while nodding,

"Just don't cramp my style or anything. And you might wanna stand back."

Wally squinted

"This is going to get messy."

Wally tied the spray cans to the palm-side of his wrists. He pressed down his middle and ring fingers on the nozzles and had the cheese attach to the ceiling. He swung up.

The Teen Ninja shot out the stars as quick as he could, but Wally kept spraying cheese and swinging around the room like a familiar superhero. The Teen jumped up onto the ledge of the open water tub and kept shooting.

A couple of his ninja stars inadvertently cut the rope of one of the ceiling lights, and it just so happened to be the one that Kuki was standing under. The rope slowly unstitched and lowered.

"Quit it!" The Teen eventually yelled. He threw his last throwing star out.

"After you!" Wally yelled. He pushed the nozzle at the right time and watched the cheese stick onto the shuriken. He spun around in midair, and shot the star back at the Ninja. It scraped his thigh, and sent him stumbling back. Wally landed back on the floor.

The Ninja tried to wave his hands around to prevent himself from falling in, but he was unsuccessful. He dunked into the tub of water. Soon he bobbed his head out and screamed

"Help! I can't swim!" He pleaded

"Well that's not my problem!" Wally said as he smiled and waved his hand, "Shoulda learned…"

He turned around and saw Kuki standing with her arms crossed

"Wally…" She said angrily. He sighed

"Oh fine!"

He turned back around and climbed up the tub.

"But only if you promise to leave us alone." Wally said

"I will! I give up, just please get me out!"

Unbeknownst to any of them, the ceiling light was lowering and lowering over Kuki.

Wally bent over the ledge and fished the Teen out. He breathed heavily when he dropped to the floor.

"Thanks man." He said

"Well, it's all in a days work for your friendly neighborhood KUKI!"

Wally had just noticed it. The ceiling light had dethatched from the rope and was about to crush Kuki. Kuki looked up.

Wally sprayed the cheese onto the ceiling and swung across the room over to her. He let go, and pushed her out of the way just in time.

But not in time to save himself.

The giant light fell directly on top of his back and rested on him. Kuki shook her head and became stable on her hands and knees.

"Wally? WALLY!"

She ran over to where he was, and used all of her strength to roll the heavy ceiling light off of him. She turned Wally's body over and saw that his eyes were shut.

"Wally…" She said with big, watery eyes.

She grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him awake

"Get up, Wally! Get up!"

He was unresponsive. She placed him gently back onto the floor. She gave a ferocious stare at the Teen Ninja.

"YOU DID THIS…" She growled with fire in her eyes

"Dude! I was just, like…following orders, chick." He replied

She soberly looked back at Wally and then stood up straight with her eyes to the sky and her hands folded together in a melodramatic pose. Shakespearian music played as she spoke

"I was his first friend, and he was my first friend too! Why must fate keep us apart? Hath every last one of the 5 hours since we've known each other come to be MEANINGLESS?! It must have been written in the stars!"

She knelt down beside him

"Alas, Wally. There's nothing left…to say. Nothing left to say but this…"

She grabbed his shoulders, leaned down, closed her eyes and kissed his lips. She kept her mouth on his until she felt a hard shove on her chest. Wally quickly sat back up and began coughing and spitting on the ground.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND, GIRLIE?!"

"WALLY! You're okay!"

"No I'm not! I've just been kissed by a giirlll!" He moaned and wiped his lips furiously

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"If you would have checked my pulse you would've known I was fine!" He kept coughing

"YAAYY!" Kuki said

"Not yay! Now get it through your head, Kuki! I'm not one of your stupid dolls in your stupid playroom. I'm mean! And I'm tough! And I definitely don't want you doing anymore of that girly crud around me, got it?!"

"Whatever you say, Wally!" She got up and skipped away. When she wasn't looking, a wiggly smile and a blush crept upon Wally's face. But he quickly snapped out of it.

The Teen spoke up when Kuki passed him

"Oh, dude, I'm so glad he's okay!"

"No you're not!" Kuki said happily. She banged down on his helmet, and his head rattled until he fell over unconscious.

"Wally, quick! We need to throw the device in."

Wally looked at his watch

"Yeah. But we should be okay. We have 2 minutes." He said "I just hope everyone else is at their stations."

-x—

"And what exactly is about to come? Why are you doing this?" Abby demanded

Cree put her arms behind her back

"The N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. You're familiar with them?" Cree asked

"Yeah. One of my teammates became quite acquainted with them when you infected him. I can't believe that you'd take technology that was meant for good, and use it to control people's minds."

Cree didn't answer. She simply walked over to the window. The kids outside were fighting each other.

"What do you see out there, Abby?"

"Chaos. And war."

"But here's the thing." Cree said quietly, "It was nothing like this before you and your little friends came back here. Sure, they resisted the mind control at first, but once they all were infected…there was no more fighting anymore. We all agreed. And the Teens were in charge. I hope to make that a reality beyond the walls of this Moonbase."

Abby was finally beginning to catch on

"So youre saying…that the Kids Next Door is just the start."

Cree nodded

"You're gonna use the kids to…"

"Yes. Think about it. Our new and improved versions of the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S don't change people's personalities. They change who the people listen to. So if I ordered these kids to go home to their parents, and slip a N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. pill into their mom's sandwich or, say, pile them into their dad's nosedrops, or, put them in their little babysitter's headphones….then one by one each adult would listen to who the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S say to listen to…"

"Which in this case are the teenagers." Abby said

"And the process will repeat. And eventually, everyone in the world will obey us! The Teens! No more curfews, no more grounding…no more of any of that. Because with these N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S, teens will rule the world!"

Abby took a moment to take all of that in

"So the reason why you called me to your ship…"

"Was to give you an offer."

"What offer?"

Cree walked closer to Abby

"The same one our employer gave to me."

"I'm not joining you." Abby said sharply

"It's funny. Those were the same first words that I said to our boss…"

"Except I'm sticking to them. All the Teen Ninjas care about is power and control."

"What, and you think the Kids Next Door is any better?!" Cree shouted. "You realize that they're just going to decommission you someday! It doesn't matter what you do, how many kids you've saved or how loyal you think you are, come your 13th birthday and they'll toss you aside, sis! Just like they did me."

Abby stood still

"Do you know the difference between you and me, Abby?" Cree continued, "I didn't realize the superiority of the Ninjas until I had wasted all of my time fighting for the Kids Next Door. It took a pair of handcuffs and a one way trip to the decommissioning chamber for me to see it. But you still have time, Abby. You still have time to train, and be the best agent you can be. I'll teach you. I'll teach you everything that I know, just like the old days."

Abby stepped forward

"Forget it, Cree."

Cree seemed hurt by the words

"Why, Abby? Why do you bother defending the organization that hasn't given you ANYTHING in return for all of the sacrifices that you made for it?"

"Because three years ago I made my sister a promise. That I would protect Sector V."

"Sector V's gone." Cree argued

"I have four friends who think otherwise. So let me say it again to make sure that we're clear. I will never join the Teen Ninjas. And Sector V is to going to stop you."

Cree exhaled.

"I've tried to reason with you, little sister…"

Cree took out her cylinder, and it extended into a staff again. This one looked like a better model than the one that broke earlier.

"But clearly you require…discipline."

Abby took out a silver handle. She rolled a knob up, and it revealed a 3 foot long, solid cheese stick that had been hiding inside.

"Bring it on, baby."

Cree dashed over to Abby and jumped in the air. She slammed her staff down, and Abby blocked it with her cheese sword. Cree tried to swing it around and hit Abby's ankles, but she blocked that as well. They backed up a few feet as they fought with their weapons. Abby used the butt of her sword to knock Cree over a table, and made her fall backwards. Abby jumped up on the table.

Cree stood up and then slashed right as Abby jumped down. She swung her staff over Abby's head, and Abby tried to grab her arm at the same time. Cree quickly kicked Abby's shin, and made Abby kneel onto the ground. Cree attempted to slam her staff over Abby's head, but Abby blocked it with her sword once again. Abby stood back up, and Cree promptly kicked Abby's chest and sent her tumbling back.

-x-

Nigel stumbled backwards and struggled to get his proper footing. 274 slowly walked over to him with his fists out.

Nigel wound back and punched the side of 274's face, and 274 countered with a powerful blow to Nigel's stomach. Nigel bent down and tended to the pain. 274 jumped up, kicked his chest, and punched Nigel in the face. Nigel fell to the floor, and had to pick himself up.

"And you thought you had what it took to be an operative."

274 kicked Nigel off of his feet again, and grabbed onto his neck. He held Nigel up as high as he could.

"Look at you. You're nothing without you precious technology."

Nigel grabbed onto 274's arm with both of his hands. He clenched his teeth in pain.

-x-

Wally threw the device into the water tank. Immediately, the device began spitting out layers of melted cheese into the water. Kuki was holding onto the lever.

"How much more time, Wally?"

Wally looked at his watch

"1 minute."

-x—

Hoagie ran down a similar looking set of spiral stairs, and soon found himself looking at a tub of water. He pumped his fist into the air

"Yes! Found it!"

"Going somewhere?"

He looked back. Five Teen Ninjas were standing in a line behind him.

"Uh oh." He said.

-x-

Abby's sword hit Cree's armor once, shuffling her backwards. Cree grabbed onto Abby's arm and tried to swing her staff at her horizontally, but Abby ducked under it. Abby shifted to Cree's backside and used the heel of her foot to kick her spine. Abby missed a sword swing, and Cree boxed Abby in the chest.

Abby and Cree both escaped each other's grasp, spun around once, and clashed their weapons together. Abby kicked Cree's center and sent her falling onto her back.

-x-

274 continued to hold Nigel up. It was quite the sight, since there was plenty of fighting going on around the podium as well.

"All out of ideas, Uno?"

"You wish." Nigel took off his sunglasses, folded them, and used the sharp end to cut into 274's arm. He recoiled it in pain and let Nigel drop. He put the sunglasses back on and then tackled 274 onto the ground, smashing into the lecture stand on the way causing 274's helmet to roll clean off.

274 kicked Nigel backwards off of him, and Nigel hit the back wall hard. He slid onto the floor face first, and took a moment to re-adjust his glasses. He looked forward and realized that his cheese gun was only a yard away.

-x-

"Uhhh, look!" Hoagie yelled while pointing behind the Ninjas. "It's a famous pop star!"

"Nice try, kiddie." One of them said while crossing his arms

"Yeah, what do you think we are, stupid?" Another one added

"You're right." Hoagie said while hanging his head, "It's just a PlayStation 4…"

"A PLAYSTAITON 4? WHERE?!" One of them asked while spinning around

"Hey, I heard him first! I want a go…"

"Me first!"

The five of them turned around to look. Hoagie ran over and threw his device into the water tub. The cheese oozed out immediately. The Teens turned back around

"Hey! Get him!"

Hoagie tried to run for the lever, but the teens had caught up to him by then. They all stockpiled on top of him, and weighed him down completely. Hoagie looked at his watch. 20 seconds left.

-x-

Cree hit the ground hard and found herself next to a table. She laid on the floor as Abby walked over to her.

"Looks like you lost again…" Abby said

Cree swiftly reached up and pressed a button on a nearby table.

The door slid open, and a swarm of Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S flew in. While Abby was distracted, Cree jumped up, hit Abby twice in the head, spun around and pinned her to the ground backwards. Cree had her knees locked onto both of Abby's shoulders. Abby was powerless. Cree produced a small knife.

"Don't forget who taught you how to fight, sis."

-x-

Hoagie used all of his strength to crawl for the lever. He was getting closer and closer

-x-

Cree cut Abby's cheese necklace off and tossed aside her earplugs.

"If you won't join willingly, then I'll have to make you join by force."

Cree grabbed Abby's face and forced her to look up. The N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S flew straight for Abby. She shut her eyes tight.

-x-

Nigel looked down at his watch. He could see Hoagie and Wally's time on his own as well. It was at 10 seconds.

Nigel looked at the cheese gun, and then back at a certain point on the wall he was next to.

274 marched over him.

"What are you gonna do, Nigel? Jump for your precious gun?"

Nigel kept looking back and forth between the gun and the wall

-x-

Wally and Kuki both looked down at the clock. It was down to 5 seconds.

"Almost there…" Kuki said

-x-

Hoagie pushed his way through the teens and reached for the lever.

"Come on. Say the line, guys. Say the line." Hoagie whispered.

-x-

It was revealed that Nigel was looking at a smoke detector on the wall. He looked back at 274.

-x—

Abby briefly glanced down at her watch before the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S got to her. She let out a smile

-x-

"That's time. Let's do it!" Wally said

-x-

"Say the line!" Hoagie yelled.

He rested his hand on the lever

-x—

Nigel smiled. All five of them said the same thing at the same time.

"Say cheese!"

-x-

Nigel quickly rolled over a few times, and shifted his shoe next to the smoke detector. He turned on his turbo boosters. The fire from his shoe immediately activated the ceiling sprinklers. He flew forward and tackled 274 to the ground.

-x-

Kuki pulled down on the lever, and the cheese was sent straight to the sprinklers. Hoagie was shown doing the same.

-x-

It was a success. The ceiling sprinklers rained melted cheese out of the sky. All of the fighting immediately slowed down, and then settled to a stop. All of the infected children were being sprayed with cheese, and were falling to the floor.

-x-

"What the?! What's going on!" Cree yelled

"You tell me sis." Abby said with a smirk

Cree looked up and watched as the cheese fell down and burned through the all of the Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S in the room. Some of it dropped on her finger and she put it in her mouth.

"Cheese?!" Cree said loudly "They're allergic to CHEESE!?"

"Numbuh 274 is lactose intolerant. Maybe he wanted his inventions to share his pain. And speaking of pain…"

Abby broke out of Cree's grasp and rolled over her. Abby pinned Cree to the floor, pulled a nearby walkie talkie from the desk and placed it next to Cree's mouth.

"Make the call, Cree." Abby demanded. "It's over."

Cree had an angry expression on her face

"As we speak all of the kids are going back to normal, and your precious Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S have died." Abby continued.

Nothing was said for a few seconds

"Do it, Cree!"

Cree closed her eyes. Abby pressed the button on the side of the Walkie Talkie. Cree opened her mouth.

"Attention all Teen Ninjas…"

-x—

The Ninja by Kuki and Wally slowly woke up

"This is Cree speaking. Our mission's a failure."

The voice came over the PA system

-x—

All of the Ninjas who were wrestling with Hoagie slowed to a stop. They looked up.

"Prepare to retreat. It's over."

-x-

Abby let go of the button.

"It didn't have to end this way, Cree." Abby finally said. She got up and let Cree slowly stand up.

"Who said that this was the end? Cree replied, "You may have one the battle, little sis. But the war's barely begun."

Cree began to walk out of the room.

"You think I'm just gonna let you walk away?" Abby yelled after her

Cree tried not to smile too big. She turned around in front of the door

"What are you going to do? Turn me in to the Kids Next Door?"

"You have a lot to answer for."

"No I don't. Because I'm not part of them anymore. I joined the winning team."

Cree began to turn toward the door again

"We had a destiny together, Cree!" Abby yelled after her

Cree nodded.

"We still do. But only on different sides. And who knows?"

Abby clenched her fists

"Maybe one day you'll come to your senses too." Cree said

Right before Cree left, Abby called out after her.

"Cree!"

She didn't bother turning back around this time.

"You may have an army. And they may be physically stronger than we are. But just as you have your allies, today I found out that I have mine too.

-x-

274 and Nigel were both laying on the ground, with cheese raining over them. Nigel moved his leg, and then slowly stood up over 274's motionless body.

"Sure, they're not the strongest bunch around." Abby said

274's eye twitched. Nigel hung his fists at his sides and slowly looked up at the sprinklers.

-x-

Wally and Kuki both exited the hallway before the floor flooded with cheese. They came to the end, and opened the door to see the other kids finally beginning to wake up as their normal selves.

"And maybe they're not the smartest."

Kuki wrapped her arms around Wally and happily rested her head over his head. Wally dropped his eyes half open and crossed his arms with an annoyed expression on his face.

-x-

Hoagie rolled over and watched the Teens leave. He readjusted his cap and goggles with a smile.

"And we all have our differences. Our…big differences.

-x—

"But there's one thing that we do have in common. Something we have that you guys don't."

Cree didn't bother to ask

"We know in our hearts what we're fighting for." Abby said, "And no matter what happens after today, I can guarantee you that each and every one of us will protect children, no matter what the cost. You're the one who taught me to do that."

Abby stared at the back of Cree's head.

"So you're right. I am gonna let you go. Because I trust that _you'll_ come back to your senses some day. But until then….I'm afraid we're gonna have to give the term, 'sibling rivalry' a whole new meaning."

Cree closed her eyes and smiled

"Oh, I'm counting on it. Sis." Cree said.

Cree exited the room, leaving Abby standing alone.


	8. Codename: Kids Next Door

Hours later, the Moonbase was back to normal

Inside, different kids were mopping up the cheese on the ground. One of them passed by a bench, where Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki, Wally and Abby were sitting.

Numbuh 60 escorted the uniformless Numbuhs 58 and 59 across the room.

"Hey! There they are!" Numbuh 58 yelled and pointed

"Yeah! The hooligans who took our uniforms!"

"It's alright, you two. We'll get the story straightened out soon enough." Numbuh 60 assured

Those three soon left their sight.

"So on a scale of one to dead…how much trouble do you think we're in?" Wally asked

"So long as they don't tell my mom on me, I think I'll live. 'Think' being the operative word there…" Hoagie said

"It's alright, guys." Nigel said, "The worst they can do is decommission you. No telling what they'll do to me. Or Numbuh 5."

"But I don't wanna forget what happened today. It was so fun!" Kuki said

"Now remember, guys." Wally said, "If they get one of us to crack, it's game over. No one talk once they start interrogating, understand?"

"That won't be necessary." They all turned towards the door. Nubmuh 362 and Numbuh 86 were standing next to each other. "Because Numbuh 274 is ready to see you all. Together." Numbuh 362 said.

They began to stand up

"But before then." 362 said, "I believe Numbuh 86 has something to say." She nudged her shoulder.

"Rachel!" Numbuh 86 yelled

"Right?" 362 asked

Numbuh 86 closed her eyes for a moment

"Perhaps…I was a little too hard on you guys. Especially Numubh 5. We would have been walking Ninjas if you didn't resist my orders. So I guess I'm…sorry." She had to spit the last word out, "So THERE, I said it. Was that good enough for you?" She asked sarcastically.

"Perfect." 362 said. She extended her arm towards the door. Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki and Wally entered.

"As hard as it may be to believe, that applies to you too." 362 said. Abby remained behind her

"Rachel. I dunno what to say. After all I put you through, you still had my back."

"It's fine, Numbuh 5. Just get in there, will ya?"

"But still. Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you….You'll make a great commanding officer someday."

362 crossed her arms

"And what makes you so sure that I'll ever get there?"

"I dunno. I gotta feeling. And I might as well say what I feel before our memories go down the tubes."

"Why don't you just find out what he has to say?"

She motioned her head towards the door. Abby nodded

"See ya around, Rachel."

-x-

Abby entered. She sat down at the only empty chair, next to Wally.

Numbuh 274 was sitting on the other side of the table with his back turned. He spun his chair around and faced them. He did nothing but stare between the five of them for a few seconds before he spoke.

"You did exactly what we told you not to do. Multiple times. I have never seen such a strong act of disobedience since I became the Kids Next Door's commander, and for that matter, since I've been with the KND at all! Not only did you make unauthorized modifications to what was supposed to be a KND aircraft, but you used it on an illicit mission that could have easily gotten you all killed! You impersonated two of our pilots and stole, that's right, STOLE…an entire collection of our weapons! And Numbuh 5! You brought these kids along with you into the Moonbase for crying out loud! What if they were spies?! And you made a mess of the entire complex!"

"Numbuh 274, I can explain…" Abby said

"Just, wait, Numbuh 5." He said while holding his hand up, "Obviously, these are very serious offenses. And you guys can be in a heck of a lot of trouble for what you've done today."

They looked at the ground. 274's mouth crept up to a smile

"But you're not."

All of them had the same look of shock when they darted their heads up.

"It's true." He said, "I haven't seen as strong of an act of disobedience in all my years. But I also haven't seen such a strong act of heroism either. The fact that you five were able to take back the Moonbase and stand up against the Teen Ninjas like that is beyond anything that I've seen in a really long time. And one of you, even stood up to me."

He turned his gaze towards Nigel.

"Did you…coordinate this entire thing?"

"Well, actually…" Nigel started, "It wasn't all m…"

Abby leaned over and shut his mouth with her hand

"Yep! He was the one who thought of everything. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to save no one!" Abby exclaimed

274 nodded

"Look. I don't remember a lot about what happened. I wasn't really myself. But I thought that I heard them call you Numbuh 1 at one point."

Nigel opened his mouth, but 274 interrupted him

"By the way, those glasses are from the display case, aren't they?"

Nigel's eyes opened wide. He promptly took off the sunglasses

"Oh my gosh, yes they are. Sorry, I'm, really sorry…I forgot that I had them. I shouldn't have taken them at all…"

"No…I think they suit you." 274 said, "And so does the title."

Nigel couldn't believe his ears. He looked at Abby as a way of testing his own sanity. Abby crossed her arms, smiled and winked. Nigel looked back at him

"Wait, you don't mean…"

"Anyone who can single handedly devise a plan to save our entire population of KND operatives deserves to be recognized for that. I always said that I would never give that title to anyone unless I was sure that they deserved it. But today, you did. So from now on, the kids will all know you as the one who saved the Kids Next Door. Numbuh 1."

"Congratulations, Nigel!" Kuki yelled

"Yeah, way to go buddy!" Hoagie said

"But…what about my test scores?" Nigel asked

"Well, funny you should ask. I looked back at my files, and it seems that we made some sort of a mistake. Your test scores look fine to me."

"But…that's impossible!" Nigel said, "How can that be?"

Abby tried not to look straight at anyone. She picked a spot in the corner and hid her smile.

"It's clear as day to me. You'll make a valuable asset to our team of operatives. So do you accept the promotion or not, Uno?

Nigel happily stood to his feet. He was about to quickly offer 274 his hand, but withheld for a second.

"Actually…" Nigel started, "I accept on one condition."

"That is…"

Nigel turned back to Hoagie, Kuki, Wally and Abby

"The truth is that I couldn't have done it without these guys. Hoagie Gilligan, Kuki Sanban, Wally Beatles and Abby Lincoln."

274 raised his eyebrow

"Whenever we'd talk, we referred to each other as Numbuhs 2, 3, 4, and 5. And, if it's the same to you, I've already gotten used to calling them that." Nigel said

"So you're asking me to add 3 kids without any referrals to the operative roster?"

"They have a referral." Nigel said as he put the sunglasses back on, "From me."

"And me." Abby said

"Hoagie took my half finished rocket and made a premium aircraft out of it in a day and a half. He'd be great with 2x4 technology. And Kuki was perfect when we needed someone to buy us time. She can be a divisionary tactics expert…"

274 leaned back and crossed his arms

"And Wally put up quite the fight against me and the Ninjas. I could see him as some sort of hand to hand combat expert. And Abby's…"

"Second in command." She finished, "After The Numbuh 1 one of course."

"If you take me, you take everybody." Nigel said "That's my offer."

"Is that what you guys want?" 274 asked

Hoagie, Kuki and Wally nodded their heads in agreement

274 took a moment to think

"If I were to let this happen. What would you guys even call yourselves?"

"Do you really have to ask?" Abby questioned

274 slowly nodded

"Well don't tell it to me. Tell it to the Moonbase."

He pressed a button on his desk, which automatically opened the back door. To everyone's surprise, the hallway was fully packed with Kids Next Door operatives looking into 274's office.

The five of them stood up and faced the crowd

"Woah…that's a lot of kids." Wally said

"You called them?" Nigel asked

274 stepped out in front of them

"And they're all here to see you. You know, under normal circumstances, you three would have to go through an intense screening process. But I suppose these aren't normal circumstances. And we should do this on the central stage, but it's still covered in cheese. So. Without further hesitation."

He turned towards the five

"Do you four solemnly swear to protect children no matter who they are?"

"Yeah!" All of them but Abby said

"Do you promise to ensure that candy, toys, and playtime are denied to no kid on the basis of age or schoolnight status?"

"Yeah!" All of them yelled

"And do you promise to uphold the laws of the Global Command and Kids Next Door Constitution?"

"Maybe!" They yelled

"Well then I…huh…Well then I, Numbuh 274, Supreme Leader of the Planetary Kids Next Door grant Numbuhs 1,2,3, and 4 operative status based on their heroism today, and their heroism in the future."

There was a loud boom of applause. 362 and 86 were in the front and center.

Kuki grabbed Wally's hand. Wally tried not to blush.

"We did it, Wally!" She said

Abby grabbed Wally's other hand

"We all did it."

Hoagie and Nigel grabbed on as well, and they took a bow. They let go.

"Now. It is time."

274 held up the code module.

Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki and Wally stuck their pointer fingers out, and dipped it in their noses. They all placed their fingers inside of the module.

"Numbuh 4" Wally said

"Numbuh 3" Kuki said

"Numbuh 2" Hoagie said

"Numbuh 1" Nigel said

The module synchronized.

"I give you…Sector V of the Kids Next Door!" 274 yelled

The applause grew louder. Abby looked over at 362 in the crowd. She nodded at her while she was clapping. Abby then looked at the four others. She didn't know what was ahead, or what to expect going forward. But what she did know was that earlier that day, those four saved the world with her. And something told her that it wouldn't be the last time. At the beginning of the week, she thought that Sector V had died. But now, she learned that Sector V couldn't die. It could only come back even stronger than ever before.

-x-

"WOAH, NELLY!" Hoagie yelled, "This room is AWESOME!"

One week had gone by, and the five of them were inside of a big treehouse, with all of their numbers at different corners. 362 was with them as well.

"Now THIS…I can get used to." Wally yelled. He was looking into his room that was equipped with a boxing ring and a punching bag. "Somewhere to hang out when home gets all…homey!"

He knocked a punching bag aside

Kuki was bouncing up and down on an orange plush bed that resembled a stuffed animal's belly. There were giant stuffed animals around the room

"I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it!" She yelled as she bounced up and down.

"Yeah…this place is pretty dope." Abby said from the main lobby, which had a big TV mounted on the wall. She was there with Nigel and Numbuh 362.

"Thanks again for setting all of this up for us, Numbuh 362." Nigel said

"Well it wasn't me." 362 corrected, "Global Command helped make a treehouse that you guys would all like. You know, somewhere where you can relax and also get your missions from. All the other sectors have one like it. And plus…Numbuh 2 sent us the blueprints. ALL the blueprints."

She shook her head and then walked over to the exit.

"Anyways, I'll let you all get settled."

She went down the ladder

"I'll see you guys soon. And don't forget, Nubmuh 1, we have a Sector Leaders meeting tonight at 6. Don't forget!"

"I won't."

She was soon out of sight.

"Well lookat you." Abby said, "Looks like you're callin' the shots now!"

"I couldn't have done any of this without you, Numbuh 5. Thank you."

"Nah. You deserve it."

Nigel could hear Kuki's yelling, Wally's boxing and Hoagie's tinkering from the other rooms.

"You think the five of us will ever understand each other?" Nigel asked

"Probably not. But that's the beauty of it. So different, yet still one team."

The alarm went off. Nigel turned over to the screen, and Hoagie, Kuki and Wally soon joined behind him.

Numbuh 86 was on the screen

"Numbuh 86?" Abby asked, "What's going on?"

"Look." She said over the screen, "I know I'm not supposed to be using this frequency...and I hate to admit this. But I need your help."

"What's the problem, Numbuh 86?" Nigel asked

"I got an anonymous tip from a kid…who isn't me, by the way. She…I mean…he said that the Delightful Children from Down the Lane are having a birthday party, and that they're refusing to share their birthday cake with any of their guests. At the party that I'm not at."

"How tasty is the cake?" Nigel asked

"Very tasty, Numbuh 1."

"And the layers?"

"Seven. Of pure chocolate."

Nigel nodded at the others. They scattered and got their weapons ready.

"We'll be there within the half hour. Sector V out."

He shut off the screen. The others had returned and formed a circle.

"Did you all get that, team?" Nigel asked

"Loud and clear, boss!" Kuki yelled.

"Time to pound some delightful dorks!" Wally said

"We'll teach them to hog their cake!" Hoagie said

"Numbuh 5 is up and ready, baby!" Abby yelled

"Then let's do this!" Nigel exclaimed

They each put her hands in the middle of the circle

"5!"Abby yelled

"4!" Wally yelled

"3!" Kuki yelled

"2!" Hoagie yelled

"1!" Nigel yelled

They simultaneously threw their hands into the air. "Kids Next Door!"

They all turned towards the door and loaded their weapons.

"Alright." Nigel said "Kids Next Door! Battle Stations!"

They all jumped forward into a still shot, and Sector V was born.

**THE END**

**-x-**

**Well I hope you guys liked it! I know that there were only a few of you guys who liked, favorited or commented, but I really appreciate those who did. **

**Woah…wait. What's this? A post-ending scene? Let's take a look**

**-x—**

The room was dark and poorly lit.

Cree slowly walked inside with a photograph in her hand. She was approaching a large chair that was turned away from her. She stopped a few feet in front of it.

"I thought I made myself clear." The deep voice behind the chair calmly said, "You were supposed to do the job without any setbacks. We'd be ruling the world together by now if it weren't for your team's incompetence."

"I know…sir." Cree said, "But there was an unforeseen…turn of events."

"I thought you were stronger than your puny little sister."

"I am, sir. But…she brought friends. New friends. She calls them Sector V. And I think that...apart from her, this one was the most troublesome."

She handed him the picture. He opened his hand and she slipped it in. His hand was pitch black with red outlines.

"His name is Nig…"

"Nigel Uno." He said. Cree stood silently.

"Like father, like son." He crumpled the picture in his hands.

"Sir…" Cree continued. "The KND discontinued the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E. project. But we still have some more Black N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. We didn't bring them all too the Moonbase. Maybe we could…"

"Destroy them." He said.

"What?" She asked, as if she couldn't believe what he was saying.

"Forget it. Plan A's over and done with. Now we have a new…priority."

He turned his chair around. His entire male figure was pitch black with a red outline, and angrily slanted yellow eyes.

"This so called, Sector V, is our new priority. Especially HIM."

"But…Father…I don't understand." Cree said

"And you'll never have to."

Father summoned fire out of his hand and burned Nigel's picture. He turned back around in his chair.

"Do what I say." Father concluded. Cree nodded

"Right away sir."

She left the room. Father looked up

"Uno. You're MINE."

**-x-**

**To Be Continued…in Codename: Kids Next Door!**

**So there we really have it! The end of the prequel which leads into the main series. What did you guys think of it? I'd really like to know, even if you just drop a short comment, favorite or message. **

**Was it at least an okay read for those who stuck through it?**

**VRX, out.**


End file.
